MAORI'S DOUBLE ESCAPE

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 228, 26 September 1930, Page 8

MAORI'S DOUBLE ESCAPE

! JUMPS CLEAR FROM MOTOR CAR. • ■■ ' . . w'- - CRAWLS THROUGH PIPE TO : AVOID FIRE. ; SURPRISE FOR RESCUERS. i (By Telegrapn.—pwn Correspondent.) NEW PLYMOUTH, this day.' ;' A Maori named Ha we escaped death or-serious injury as result of resourcefulness in a motor car accident at Okauawa yesterday. His car, after careering madly out of his control, somersaulted and toppled oyer a sharp drop. He escaped the full fall by jumping cl-ear, and probably also escaped death from burning when the car burst into flames, and he crawled 25 yards through a water pipe under the road. The steering gear locked when going down hill and the car veered across the road towards a sharp drop into a tributary of Inaha Stream. Powerless to stop the ear, Hawe jumped clear when it was leaving the bank and was about to somersault. The car dropped through fern and bushes to the edge of the stream with a resounding crash, followed by flames. Hawe landed in the water near the car, which was burning fiercely. The' flam-os set ~re to fern. Hawe then •crawled through . a 2ft drain pipe against a flowing stream of water for-5 yards. Spectators, believing Hawe was pinned beneath the car, frantically applied water with buckets, and they were surprised when the driver appeared wet through in the place where they were filling their buckets. The car was a total loss.