A gruesome murder was not on dignitaries' minds at the opening of the Mount Victoria Tunnel in 1931.

Wellington City councillor Chris Calvi-Freeman has called for a ban on tooting in Mt Victoria tunnel because it annoys pedestrians. But Mayor Justin Lester says it's just a bit of fun. This story, first published in April 2015, points out where the tradition may have started.

Motorists leaning on their horns in the Mt Victoria tunnel may not be aware they are paying tribute to a woman they have probably never heard of – murdered teenager Phillis Symons.

Legend has it the tradition of tooting in the tunnel is in memory of the 17-year-old, who was buried alive in dirt fill while the tunnel was being built in 1931.

A pregnant Symons was knocked unconscious with a pipe by her boyfriend, tunnel worker George Coats, then dumped in soil just outside the tunnel on the Hataitai side.

Her body was found hunched up, indicating she had tried to escape but suffocated in the soil. The tragedy was brushed over in a 1981 Evening Post history of the tunnel.

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"This unfortunate young lady was buried alive in the fill from the tunnel by her singularly unromantic lover. But, apart from that rather irregular use of the fill, the excavation of the tunnel was a remarkably straightforward job," the paper said.

The Supreme Court sentenced Coats to death for murder, though he claimed Symons had committed suicide and that he had buried her only to avoid blame for her death.

Even on the gallows, 30-year-old Coats proclaimed his innocence, The Dominion reported in December 1931. His last words were: "I am innocent. I trust in the Lord."

"One looked in vain for something craven in his last moments," a reporter wrote.

Coats had been a model prisoner, discussing many topics with his wardens, but avoiding talk of his crime. On the morning of his death, he was sleeping so soundly he had to be woken, and asked for a glass of brandy with breakfast, The Dominion said.

It was the first hanging at Mt Crawford prison, and the first in Wellington since 1923 at the old Terrace Gaol. Coats' executioner was an unemployed man with no experience, despite a former executioner applying to perform the grim task, according to The Dominion. To make the situation stranger, the hangman wore blue-tinted spectacles instead of the traditional mask.

The 623-metre, £132,000 tunnel opened with pomp and ceremony on October 12, 1931, three months ahead of schedule. It was the first tunnel in New Zealand to be air conditioned – the ducts were built in under the high walkway inside.