Worker fell to death at Syphon Culvert
wife was Rakacza Borsod, and by 1925 they had three children: Michel, 11, John, 9, and Steve, 6.
Mihály Bayusz arrived in Canada (Halifax) on April 2, 1925 aboard the S.S. Zealand. He found work with the Atlas Construction Company, which had the contract for building the Syphon Culvert near the old Aqueduct in Welland. When completed, this would carry the water flow of Chippawa Creek (the Welland River) under the new Canal just north of the Main Street Lift Bridge (Bridge No. 13).
Bayusz was employed as a “tag man.” It was the tag man’s job to hold the guy rope that was tagged onto the excavation bucket as it proceeded from the Syphon Culvert below to filling cars nearby. While doing this job, he fell from the culvert wall to the concrete flooring below, a distance of thirty-three feet. He landed on his head, sustaining a fractured skull.
The badly injured worker was carried first to the emergency hospital and later removed to Welland County General Hospital, on Bald Street, where he died at 6 p.m., shortly after being admitted and without regaining consciousness.
Dr. S. Nixon Davis, the local coroner, ordered an inquest, which found that no one knew how he came to fall from the wall. A couple of witnesses discounted one theory that he tripped on a rope and fell to his death. Superintendent Horgan, however, suggested that he may have collapsed due to the heat. Apparently, Bayusz had complained of the heat earlier in the day.
Funeral arrangements were handled by Patterson & Son and he was
Mihály Bayusz, 36 (a.k.a. Michael Bajusz)
Born: July 12 (or 14), 1892 (Rakamaz, Szatmár-Ugocsa-Bereg, Hungary) Died: July 23, 1928 (Section 6, Syphon Culvert, Welland) Cause of death: Fall Occupation: Tag Man, Atlas Construction Co. Ltd. Place of burial: Holy Cross Cemetery, Well buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Welland. It is not known what happened to Mihály’s wife and three children who were still in Hungary. This article is part of a series remembering the men whose lives were lost in the construction of the Welland Ship Canal. The Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial Task Force is a volunteer group established to design, finance, and build a memorial to recognize workers who were killed during construction of the Welland Ship Canal. For more information about the Memorial, or to contribute to the project, visit: www.stcatharines. ca/CanalWorkersMemorial.