INJURED PROGRESSING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 150, 7 April 1930, Page 6

INJURED PROGRESSING

SPARKS STILL SERIOUSLY ILL. DIFFICULT WORK OF RESCUE. WHANGAREI, This Day. There is.little fresh to report concerning the levq} crossing disaster at McLeod’s Flat. The injured are all progressing satisfactorily, but Sparks is still in a serious state. No information can be obtained from the injured. The work of rescue was rendered difficult by the fact that the night w is dark and a, drizzling rain was falling. Only the guard’s electric torch could be used, the benzine fumes making the use of open lights dangerous. The bus was completely wrecked. It was struck fair and square just, behind the front wheels, and hurled down a 10-foot bank. Seats, cushions and bloodstained splinters of wood were strewn a considerable distance along the line.

Miss Darwin was thrown on to the platform above the cowcatcher and carried 176 yards before the train was pulled up. She was dead when found. The driver of the bus, Noel Wilkinson, whose father is one of the proprietors of the Bus Company, was the only one to retain consciousness, and managed to crawl out of the wreckage. Rothwell was found on the righthand side of the track, 60 yards from the crossing. Miss Wilson was visiting Hikurangi as a guest of Mrs Jackson, of Hikurangi, as was Miss Trotter, one of those injured. Miss Wilson had made arrangements to return to Auckland, but finally decided to stay over the week-end and attend the races.

The accident happened on the first ci’ossing on the Hikurangi side of. McLeod’s Flat, and at a point where the main highway crosses the line alongside the Mangahahuru siding. In this locality the line crosses the road twice in about 56 chains, and for the whole distance the line runs parallel with the road. At both ends, however, there are bends in the line, so that the road crosses the line at an oblique angle. Since 1924 persistent but unsuccessful efforts have been made to have both level crossings eliminated by the deviation of the main highway, but the railway engineer expressed the •opinion that no matter how desirable elimination might be, if funds were available they could be spent with more advantage elsewhere, as there were many crossings where the view was not so good as on McLeod’s Flat. The Main Highways Board said it did not intend to do anything. The Board’s policy w>as to provide annually for a limited amount of improvements

to dangerous crossings, such as oveiv bridges, subways, etc., and added that McLeod’s crossing would not be considered dangerous, though, of course, it would be an advantage to have it eliminated.