AN AWFUL ACCIDENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 31, 7 February 1899, Page 2

AN AWFUL ACCIDENT.

TREE CRUSHES A COACH.

DRIVER AND PASSENGER KILLED.

A terrible accident occurred to the mail coach between Camden Flaven and Port Macquarie, N.S.W., on the 31st ult. In an account supplied by the Sydney 'Daily Telegraph' correspondent it is stated that the accident occurred at am. about five miles from Kew and 17 from Port Macquarie. The wind blew a large hollow tree 15ft to ISft in girth across the read just as the coach was passing, crushing the coach into splinters and killing the driver, a young man named Robert Louis, instantly.

The only passenger was Mr George M. Pattison, a commercial traveller representing Heyde, Todman, and Co. He was riding inside the coach, and the limbs of the tree crushed him, breaking both his legs badly and one arm. He was pinned to the broken coach from 2 a.m. till 6 a.m. (when the accident was discovered by Ernest Scrivner), with no companionship but the dead driver. The dead man and the injured one were removed to Kew Hotel, and Drs. Boelke, of Port Macquarie, and Gormley, of Taree, were in attendance as quickly as possible. The latter had to drive 33 miles to the scene. It was decided to amputate the leg, but Pattison died soon after the operation, at 4.40 in the afternoon. The -injured man bore the removal from the scene of the accident with ■ great fortitude, and was hopeful to the last.

Louis was driving the coach for the last time, his engagement with Keough terminating that day. He was a young man about 20 years of age, and well known and respected in the district. Pattison was one of the best known and most respected travellers in the colony. Of the three horses in the coach, one (the wheeler) was killed on the spot. The other wheeler got away into the bush, while the leader escaped unhurt.