TRAM SMASH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 192, 16 August 1939, Page 10

TRAM SMASH.

MOTORMAN HURT.

SYMONDS ST. MISHAP.

NO SERIOUS INJURIES.

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE DONE.

A remarkable escape from serious '"jury or e\ en death was experienced t>v the motorman of one of two trains involved iii a collision in Svmonds Street between Gra/fton Bridge and St. Benedict Street, shortly before 8.30 o'clock this morning. He was: — Mr. T. ( . Kent, of Manukau Road, who sustained an injury to the second finger °f '" s left hand, and slight grazing of one knee. He wan taken to the Auckland Hospital and after receiving treatment he was able to return home.

The first tram stopped so that the trolley pole might 'be adjusted, after a slight dislodgment. The following car braked, but the wheels would not grip on the slippery lines, and thus the accident occurred.

W itli a loud crash the two vehicles collided, throwing startled passengers off their balance. One passenger in the rear car stated that he was reading <i newspaper at the time of t'hc crash and waA thrown violently forward, hitting his knees against the'seat in front. Most of those in the tram had similar experiences.

"V\ ith a jefk X looTced up," he said, "to fire the conductor, who was on the front platform, leap from the car to the roadway. Fortunately no traffic was passing at the time, otherwise he must surely have been hit. The majority of the passengers immediately vacated the car, but their exit was orderly. A« far as I could see none was hurt." (hit of Alignment. The motorman's cabin of the tram was extensively damaged, the front being buckled in as far as the door to the passe n pers.' compartment. The chassis underneath the cabin was put well out of alignment, and this factor appeared to present some difficulty in the removal of the vehicle.

The front of the cabin whs torn off and dragged to the pavement. The control system was thrown completely out <>f action, and various pieces of mechanism lay among the wreckage. The brake control column leaned out the front like the bowsprit on a ship. One of the steel upright.* 'between the step and the roof of the cabin was missing and the other was bent. The sides and the hack of the cabin were torn from the floor, the glass windows shattered, the woodwork splintered and the ineta! bent.

The navigation light hung down from the roof, and one of the lighbs in front of the destination sign was> moved from its foundation by the impact. The window of one of the doors leading to the passenger*' compartment was cracked, and the whole of the front of the car looked as if a 'bomb had been thrown against it. and splintered glass and broken wood lay on the road.

The rear cabin <*{ the foremost tram was badly damaged, but not so extensively as that which crashed into it. The frame of the cabin was shattered, but it fell inwards. It did not completely break away from the chassis.

The smash held up a long stream, of trams and many people chose to walk rather than wait until the line was cleared. Later, however, the vehicles were diverted down Karangahape Road to Queen Street. The battered cabin of the front tram falling inwards, the car was able to proceed under its own power, but the second had to be pushed into the city. This had to be done in slow stages, as the tram pushing the damaged one started to heat.