FLAMING CAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 11

FLAMING CAR.

CRASH OVER BANK. c f SPECTATORS INJURED. < TRAGEDY AT BROOKLANDS. (Special.—By Air Mall.) I LONDON, May 11. A few seconds after the 200-mile international trophy race had started at Brooklande a flaming car went over the bank. It charged the massed spectators, scattering them in terror, mowing many down and fatally injuring one woman. Men and women jumped for their lives. Some lay inert in the wake of the car. A score of cars, roaring to the "bend in close formation at 80 m.p.h., had just been unleashed on a flying start. Almost at once the 12-cylinder Delage, a new racing car built by France to fight the Germans in this year's Grand Prix races, burst into flames. Its driver, Joseph Paul, tried to avoid the other cars. He steered for the verge. In doing so he collided with A. C. Lace's Darracq and flung ft off the course. Then, out of control, Paul's car tore into the crowd. Ten-foot Flames. Paul, enveloped in 10ft high flames, struggled to get out of the car, which came to rest on the grass verge, still burning furiously. He was carried to hospital on a stretcher with a fractured arm and concussion. His condition is serious. Nine people were taken to hospital. Five were detained, one of whom, Miss Peggy Williams, aged 25, died during the night. She had burns and head injuries. Meanwhile the race went on. As ambulance men were lifting the injured on to stretchers and relatives of the victims stood by in tears, the 2cars still in the race flashed past on the track below. _ An eve-witness said: "I saw the Delage coming up the straight W*"£j nits 4s it approached I <?a« flame * siting from underneath and from thej cockpit. ,

"They were all round Paul, the driver. I saw him trying to jump out of the car as it was travelling. Charged Crowd. "The Delage, now blazing furiously, charged up the slope, some four or five feet high, knocked down the wooden i railings, and crashed headlong into the crowd. "The scene was terrifying. There were a lot of people at the spot. "The driver got out of the car without help. His clothing was alight, and he was sprayed with chemical from a fire extinguisher. "The other car, which was not damaged, was pushed off the grass and in a few minutes restarted in the race." Mrs. Kaye Petre, famous race driver, 'was knocked down but escaped injury.