BUS SKIDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 39, 16 February 1928, Page 8

BUS SKIDS.

THEN OVERTURNS. FIVE HURT IN AVONDALE SMASH. TWELVE HAVE AMAZING ESCAPES. WHAU BRIDGE AGAIN. Twelve people liad an amazing escape this morning when a City Council bus skidded 80ft on the greasy roadway and overturned approaching the Whau Bridge. Five of the passengers were taken to the Auckland Hospital, where they were treated in the casualty ward. All were able later to go to their homes. The bus was making the 10.46 trip from Surrey Crescent to Henderson. Nearing the Whau Bridge the driver saw a motor car coming from the other side, and slowed up to let the vehicle across the bridge. With brakes on—it was suggested that they locked—the heavy bus slithered and swerved across the | roadway, left the concrete, and, doing a complete turn, finished on its side facing the direction from which it came. Women screamed when the bus, with a crash of broken glass, overturned. Those hurt were:— Mrs.' S. Loveridge, 18, Grey's Avenue: Cut on forehead, which needed stitches. Miss Howley, 132, Dominion Road: injuries to arm and chest. Mr. W. North, a tramway motorman: Cut over eye. Mrs. Luscombe, 66, Cook Street: Slight abrasions. Roberta Burt, aged two years, of Blockhouse Bay: Injuries to leg.

In a car following the bus were Mr. J. A. Langley and Mr. H. P. Taylor. They opened the emergency door at the back of the bus and helped the people out. Women's underskirts were used to temporarily bind cuts received by some of the passengers. It was not long before the Auckland Hospital Ambulance (which did the whole job in 25 minutes) arrived and took those hurt for treatment. Most of the people suffered more from shock than injury. Men from the council garage at Avondale soon had the bus on its wheels again. All the glass work in the bus I was broken, and some of the framework I was damaged. The vehicle was abl© to be driven back to the garage. Two Smashes in a Week. One of the passengers in the bu3 has been in two bad smashes this week. She is Miss D. Jenkins, of 78, Greys Avenue. She was not even scratched, but her mother got a nasty cut on the forehead. Misa Jenkins was a passenger in a motor car on Monday night when it collided 'heavily with another and several people were badly hurt. One girl suffered so badly that even now she cannot move either of her legs. On that occasion, too, Miss Jenkins was not hurt, she being the only one who did not get a scratch of some kind. One of the most fprtunate features of the crash to-day was the fact that a .mother and baby got out of the bus at the stop just before the accident happened.

Was Speed Excessive? One or two people who saw the accident say that the bus was travelling at a fast speed, but a traffic inspector said that there was no suggestion of excessive speed. One bystander said that the buses always travelled at a fast pace at this point. There was a bad approach to the bridge and it had to be taken very carefully. He said that it was surprising that there were # not more accidents on that part of the road.

Fall-Width Bridge Wanted. "The accident demonstrates the consequence of not having a full-widtlj bridge across the Whau Creek," said Mr. A. E. Ford, manager of the Auckland Tramways. He added that at busy times the local body concerned regulated traffic at this point and an inspector was frequently on duty there. The checking of traffic on the down grade had the effect of concentrating grease on the surface and when motors were pulled up warm grease was apt to drip from the engine, making the surface ex- | tremely dangerous when it was wet.