FIRE-ENGINE HITS POLE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 146, 2 April 1948, Page 6

FIRE-ENGINE HITS POLE

TWO MEN INJURED (P.A.) AUCKLAND, April 1. Two firemen were injured "when a closed-in tender from the Central Fire Station left the roadway and collided with a pole on a sharp bend in Great North Road, Grey Lynn, this afternoon. The engine was on its way to Westmere School, to attend what proved to be a malicious false alarm. The injured men were John Edward Keating O’Connell, junior station officer, who suffered an injury to the face, and John Russell Forster, fireman, an injury to the back and slight lacera. tion to the scalp. Both were able to go home after receiving treatment at the casualty department at the hospital. Heavy rain was falling at the time of the'accident. When the tender left the road after failing to get round a corner, Driver A. Little attempted to steer it into the library grounds, but it struck the pole a glancing; blow on his side. Fireman Forster, who was standing on a platform at the back, was flung on to the footpath. Driver Little and another fireman escaped injury. The front wheels, axle, and springs were sheared off the tender and the right hand front was severely crushed. The impact brought down telephone wires, tramway overhead wires, and a special wire for the district’s fire alarm system.

FARMER FATALLY INJURED TRUCK ROLLS DOWN BANK (P.A.) NEW PLYMOUTH, April 1. Chest injuries from which he died in the New Plymouth Hospital to-day were received by Matthew Joseph Sattler, aged 42, farmer, of Waitui, when a motor-truck he was driving left the road on a sharp bend at Waitui last night and rolled 100 yards down the hillside. Mr Sattler was a married man with several children. v