Kilmore Free Press at KellyGang 19/4/1877
THE ECHUCA ACCIDENT
The following particulars of the lamentable accident at Echuca, on Monday, have been furnished to the Bendigo Advertiser: -
Soon after four o'clock one of the travellers at the Moama side of the river, fifty feet from the ground, upon which seven men were working, suddenly fell, fearfully crushing the poor fellows. The traveller at the time was being employed to lift the dead-weight used for sinking the cylinders from the top of one of these piers. Too much of the material, consisting of railway iron and bluestone, was taken off one side, and the cylinder canted over, and struck the traveller which in turn, was overbalanced, knocked away the girders underneath it, and came sideways to the ground with all upon it, and about fifty tons of loading. The men were fearfully, hurt. Where the traveller fell ruin is complete; huge beams are splintered like matches, the hoisting machinery, and bluestone is broken to pieces. and the staging, cylinders and iron, are an utter wreck, and piled with one huge, mass of debris in inextricable confusion. The girders supporting the traveller for about fifty yards in length. Various surmises are current as to the cause of the accidents but it is generally believed that it resulted through, the, cylinders not being properly bolted together. Only four bolts were fastened in, the joint which gave way when the column fell over, to one side, and it is thought that had all the bolts been screwed the pier would have been safe. A diver who was excavating the bed of the sister cylinder to the one which fell had a narrow escape, for when the supply of air was out off by the accident occurring, he had only time to climb the ladder some forty feet to the mouth of the cylinder and have the head gear removed to escape suffocation. The disaster has caused immense excitement here, and much sympathy is expressed for the wives and families of the injured men, all of whom, with the exception of Moore, are said to be married. The unfortunate men were sent from Echuca to Sandhurst by special train, which overtook the ordinary train at Elmore, and the two vans containing the wounded men were attached to it. The scene at the station was heartrending from the moans of some of the terribly mangled sufferers.
William Godfrey, one of the men injured at the Murray-bridge, died before he reached, the Sandhurst Hospital. The lives of two or three of the others are despaired of. Public opinion favours the establishment of a local hospital, so, that accident cases might be dealt with on the spot. The principal objection, by the well to do people in Echuca, against the establishment of a local hospital is that it would be filled with patients from Riverine, The working men, here are in favor of a local hospital, and in a few days the eight hours men will give a, demonstration in favor, of that object.
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