Sculpture at the tomb representing a young man with a gesture, which reveals a person, trapped in the pain of death. Shovel in his right hand, and the circumference of the well underneath figure are symbols of here buried Kelnarič August's profession, unfortunately also fatal.
Digging own wells,at a time when this was still allowed in Maribor, sometimes resulted in a tragic end. In 1900, in Cankarjeva Street in Pobrežje while digging a well were fatally buried two men. Nine years later and in the same street another digger died. In 1929, in 2 meters deep new well was buried one person, in the street Ob gozdu, not far away from already mentioned Cankarjeva Street.
The third fatal accident in this street long echoed far and wide. On Sunday morning, 14 April 1935, 27 years old August Kelnarič, well digging assistant from the vicinity of Maribor was digging there. At the bottom of the well and in the moment, when he removed the frame, he was flooded with a mixture of concrete and gravel. The unlucky man was buried up to the neck. Rescuers from Pobrežje, Studenci and Tezno, were quickly informed and arrived at the scene to start the rescue operation. About ten meters from fountain they began to dig a meter wide channel to a depth of eight meters. When they were about 2 meters from Kelnarič, the earth once again collapsed. Re-digging was difficult, and so the rescue operation lasted until 3 o'clock in the night, but without success. On Monday morning urban professionals came and started digging a new deep channel. Late in the evening they managed to come closer to the buried alive victim. Then rescuers digged under his feet and realized that the concrete around the victim has started to dry. They started breaking the cement, but gravel poured again, so they stopped.
On Tuesday 16 April, and the third day of rescue operation of Kelnarič, one of city newspaper reported: "The rescue work on Sunday and Monday morning was useless, because the gravel poured again and again. So, they put a wooden box over Kelnarič's head, to which they supplied air from above through pipes and refreshed him with tea". On Tuesday morning the district governor Mr. Milan Makar also visited the scene of the accident. The victim was already significantly weakened, but still conscious. Nearly a thousand curious people were at the scene that day. The public order was in the hands of constables from Tezno, firefighters and prison guards.
Unfortunately, Kelnarič died the next day after 76 hours of agony in the cold embrace of earth and concrete. The news of his death quickly spread through the city and triggered outrage. In the evening at the scene of the accident ten thousand people gathered and loudly insisted there for many hours. Later, it was widely considered that the rescue operation was not done with proper methods. The authorities should have called the experts from Trbovlje mine. It is therefore on his grave also recorded sentence "I accuse"