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ill FI MAN DIES Pioneer Edition JOURNAL VOL. XLVI, NO. 95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1954 10c PER COPY SIXTEEN PAGES T R A G E D Y — The above photo shows the wreckage of the water toweJ j>«h»f erected In the Union PacW * * a r d s , when a wlnch fall-ure brought death to one man and serious Injuries to two others. T h e^iers for the tower, .wfere •tandtag.jrtsre bought, dow * around the bodies of two of the men when another pier, which w as betas lifted into place, fell and sh atteredth egu yw iresw h ich w ero holding- the other piers in place. R EVIEW -JO UR NAL PHOTO ------- — ---------------------------------------------------------------- ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? D E A T H The above photo shows workmen trying to rescue Harold Gentis, of Compton, Calif., who was caught beneath several ton* of steel when the water tower piers collapsed this morning. \ REVIEW-JOURNAL p h o t o in the general elec- ( Continued from P a g e One) Dungey, the report said, and the safety catch failed to operate. The spinning crank o f the winch heaved Dungey about 50 feet, and the slippage caused the pier, with its human cargo, to fa ll to the ground. A s the pier fell, it broke the guy w ires which w ere holding the four corner piers in place and all but the bottom piers cam e toppling down, trapping Gentis beneath one o f them. Rusher suffered his injuries from the fall, and was not trapped by any of the falling debris. The contracting firm which was raising the tow er is the D a rly Co., o f Kansas City. Two Others Hurt in UP Yards Fall One man is dead and two others injured, one serious* ly, as the result of a freak accident which occurred shortly after 8 o'clock this morning in the Union Pa* cific yards where a contract­ing firm was in the process of erecting a new water tank to serve the yards. The dead man is H arold Gentis, 14807 Cook Acres in Compton, Calif. H e was crushed when the tower piers collapsed on top o f him. The main steel piers fe ll across his head and chest and crushed life from him. Critical The most seriously injured was C. J. Rusher, 1467 Agnes A ve., Kan­sas City, M o., who suffered a possi­ble fractured skull, a fractured right arm and righ t leg, as w ell as possible internal injuries. His con­dition is critical. The other injured man is E a rl Dungey, 26027 Norbone A ve., Lo-m ita, C alif., who suffered back and chest injuries and bad fa cia l cuts. Both o f those hurt are in the Southern N evada M em orial hos­pital. Dog Slips The accident occurred, appar­ently, when the safety “ dog” on the winch which was being used to m ove a boom, which was hung in the center of the four steel piers, slipped and brought about the trag­edy. According to police reports, Gentis and Rusher w ere riding a two-and-a-half ton pier up toward the top o f the tow er and Dungey was operating the hand winch which was being used to lift the pier. Catch Fails The winch started to get away (Continued on P a g e 3)