WRECKED CAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 81, 7 April 1931, Page 5

WRECKED CAR.

DROP OVER 100 FT CLIFF.

DAMAGED BEYOND REPAIR.

DISCOVERY AT ORAKEI.

WHAT AN EYE-WITNESS SAW-

After crashing down a 100 ft cliff at Orakei early this morning, a taxicab finished its career with wheels in the air and with the bocly almost flattened to the ground. The vehicle was damaged beyond repair.

There was nothing to indicate that there had been any occupants at the time of smash. Anybody in the 'vehicle would have been seriously injured as it turned over and over, tearing aWay pieces of rock in its" 100 ft crash.

The car landed on its hood, and the body was crumpled into an unrecognisable shape by the force of the impact with the ground. The engine had shifted from its foundation. Practically every window was smashed, but, curiously, those in the left door and the rear were unbroken. One of the righthand doors was lying some distance away from the wreck, and the mudguard and pieces of the body were scattered over a wide area.

The benzine tank was evidently empty when the crash occurred, because the tank remained intact, and the cap was still, on. the funnel this morning. There were no signs that th'e petrol had leaked out. The hand brake was off. The smash occurred at 3 a.m., according to an eye-witness, who rushed round to the bottom of the cliff to render assistance. He judged, however, that the car had not been occupied during its career down the cliff. He had seen the vehicle go over. The car, he said, had stopped on the road on the edge of the cliff, ancl shortly afterwards another car had arrived and had turned into a nearby street, where it had waited. The eye-witness said that the car which he subsequently saw at the bottom of-the cliff had been turned round facing the cliff and that the lights were burning before it went over. Immediately after the crash, he said, the second' car drove away. ' ■ \ The owner of the wrecked car, Mr. J. T, Mantell,, reported this morning that the vehicle had been taken from the driver's place last evening. When search was made of the wreckage a lady's purse was found, containing a safety pin, a receipt and an address in Sydney. j