RUNAWAY TRAM IN DUNEDIN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 67, Issue 236, 18 July 1947, Page 4

RUNAWAY TRAM IN DUNEDIN

VEHICLE PLUNGES DOWN STEEP HILL (P A.) DUNEDIN, July 17. Eight tram passengers, a motorman, a conductor and people on the street had a narrow escape this morning when a tram from Anderson’s Bay left the rails coming down the steep incline from the terminus, careered down hill across a grass plot, and tore away a few posts of a shop veranda before coming to rest. It ploughed through a thick concrete wall round the plot, snapped a steel tramway post, and tore away the overhead gear for a considerable distance. In spite of the tram’s , speed when it hit the steel and concrete obstructions, no one was injured.^ The postmistress at Anderson s Bay was clearing a letter box beside the kerb when she saw the tram coming down the hill towards her. She could hear a woman on the footpath screaming. The tram flashed past and crashed into a shop veranda. The motorman was still at the controls. Some of the passengers were screaming. The shock was too much for her, and slie collapsed on returning to the post office. A steam roller, a large powei grader and a powerful truck were used to haul the tram off the footpath. The transport engineer-manager (Mi L. C. Greig), after a preliminary investigation into the accident said that the car became' uncontrollable as a result of the controller handle becoming locked. This was caused by a mechanical fault.