PROMPT ACTION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 68, 2 January 1936, Page 8

PROMPT ACTION.

YOUTHS SAVE TWO LIVES. CAR CRASHES ON TO RAILWAY. (Per Press Association). AUCKLAND, January 1. Crashing through the railing of the approach to the overhead bridge at Pokeno at about 5.20 o’clock this morning on to the main trunk railway 30 feet below in a sedan car, two Auckland residents were injured, but the prompt action of two youths saved them from death. The two victims of the accident, were James Alexander Grayson, dentist, of Epsom, injury to left knee and numerous abrasions, and William Gaitt Clavis, Mount Eden, extensive head abrasions. The youths, whose presence of mind and quick work were so invaluable, were James Leathern and Walter Russell, farm hands in the employ of the former’s father, Mr G. Leathern, whose residence fronts the road about 180 yards from the bridge. After remaining awake to see the New Year in, Grayson and Clavis left Auckland for Napier. While seated in the farmhouse taking their pre-milking cup of tea, the two youths heard the car pass and then crash. They rushed out on to the road and noticed that the bridge railing had been carried away. A small column of dust was also rising. They ran to the spot and saw the car on its hood with the bonnet across the rails, and its back against the far side of the cutting. One man, who proved to be Grayson, the owner and driver of the car, was lying inert across the rails, face downward by the front window. The youths were quickly in the cutting and lifted him to safety in the water channel at the edge of the permanent way. They then became conscious of the sound of a train approaching. It was the express rounding a bend half a mile away, at about 40 miles an hour. Young Leathern ran as fast as he could along the line toward it, waving his arms, and shouting. Fortunately the driver saw him in time, and, applying the brakes, managed to stop the train within about 20 feet of the car. In the meanwhile young Russell had looked into the car. Clavis was lying stunned across the seats. Russell seized his clothing and managed to drag him through one of the shattered windows, and away from the rails. The train crew, and a large number of passengers who had alighted, came along and Grayson and Clavis -were carried to the guard’s van.