|
MAN IN CROWD DIES; ONE HURT IN FALL
One man collapsed and died and another suffered head injuries when he fell 20 feet from a tree in a crowd at Eden Park on Saturday. A St John Ambulance team of 30 men and 12 nurses treated about 300 people before and during the test match.
The man who died was Mr William Jones Guy, of 33 Karina Avenue, Palmerston North.
He was described by a St John Ambulance officer as elderly. It is understood that he was with friends among the crowd on the terraces.
The man injured in falling from a tree at the scoreboard end of the ground was Mr James E. Robinson, aged 45, of 119 Hephy Terrace, Hamilton. He was admitted to the Auckland Hospital with concussion.
|
Constant Call
Helped by about 80 policemen, the St John Ambulance team had constant calls on their services and frequently had to extricate people from the dense crowd high up on the terraces. About 50 of those treated were stretcher cases.
Such was the crush of the crowd that St John Ambulance men inside the ground proper were unable to gain access to a casualty station behind the scoreboard.
The Ambulance officer in charge of the main team said the job had been made difficult because no access lanes had been left through the crowd.
The crowd generally had been co-operative, but many people had taken advantage of the St John Ambulance by feigning illness to get them selves into a better position.
|
One woman had to be taken home by taxi after being crushed against the picket fence . Another who had waited for hours in the sunshine collapsed about two minutes before the test teams took the field. She was carried away on a stretcher, followed by a dejected male escort carrying her coat and shoes.
Better Arrangements
Commissioner R. C. McCleave, officer in charge of the Auckland St John Ambulance, said last night that better arrangements for brigades men at Eden Park would be discussed with the Rugby Union. “It was just one of those things,” he said. “But there must be no repetition of it. Lanes through any heavy crowd are necessity if brigades men are to carry out there duties. |
