A 58-year-old Matthew’s Ridge pork-knocker was killed on Valentine’s Day when a mining pit collapsed at Highwood Backdam, NWD.
The dead man has been identified as Christopher Bumbury of Pakera, Matthew’s Ridge, North West District (NWD).
Based on preliminary investigations done thus far by the police in the region, the southern wall of the dug-out mining pit measuring about 15 feet in width by 20 feet in length by 22 feet in depth collapsed and covered the victim on Monday, February 14.
At the time of the incident, Bumbury and another man were digging gravel at the bottom of the southern wall when it collapsed. “…his workmate Hilton Ward ran out of the pit and later returned with two other workmates, Paul Bumbury and Wilfred Bumbury, both of whom assisted in a search for the victim,” he police said.
The man’s motionless body was found about 45 minutes after. No marks of violence were seen by police.
At the Port Kaituma District Hospital he was seen by a doctor on duty and pronounced dead on arrival at 13:45hrs on Tuesday, February 15, and later placed in cold storage awaiting a PME.
