INFANTS KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 1, 3 January 1933, Page 9

INFANTS KILLED.

PINNED UNDER WAGON GIRL SERIOUSLY HURT. CAPSIZE OF PICNIC PARTY. j (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) DUNEDIN, this day. Two infants were killed and a young girl was seriously injured as the result of a wagon capsizing on a steep hill at Eaurekau, near Milton, about noon on Sunday. The victims of the collision were:— Frances Marion Carruthers, aged one year and nine months, who was killed instantly, and Iris Joyce Carrnthers, aged three months, who died in hospital.

A sister, Daphne May Carruthers, aged five years six months, was taken to hospital with serious head injuries.

Another occupant of the wagon, Mrs. Stapeley, of Green Island, received abrasions and shock.

The accident brought to a tragic end a picnie outing to the seaside. The party included Mr. and Mrs. Lionel M. Carruthers, of. Raurekau, their six young children, and also Mr. A. Rekowski (father of Mrs. Carruthers), Mr. William Hutton, and Mr. and Mrs. Stapeley, of Green Island, and their young child. All were travelling in a light wagon, drawn by two horses. Approaching the top of a steep ascent at Grange Hill, three members of the party, Messrs. Hutton, Rekowski and Stapeley, and two other older children got out and walked, and the horses entered on a particularly steep pinch. When they had gone a short way Mr. Carruthers considered the climb too steep, and tried to turn the wagon round. At this critical stage one horse started forward on the narrow road, and the wagon was thrown over sideways. Most of the occupants escaped with bruises and shock, but Mrs. Stapeley and three of the little children were pinned underneath. At an inquest on the two infants this afternoon, a verdict of accidental death was returned.