DISASTROUS SLIDE.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17855, 30 August 1923, Page 14

DISASTROUS SLIDE.

A TOBOGGAN CRASH. IN AUSTRALIAN ALPS. (J-Jioll OUR OWX CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY", August 23. Mr Horace L. Chambers, a member of a well-known city business firm, Messrs Bloxam and Chambers, will not quickly forget his holiday visit a day or two ago to Mt. Kosciusko, in the southern highlands of New South Wales, and one of the most popular of the State's tourist resorts, because of the unique opportunities which, in the winter, it affords sun-baked Australians to get up among snow-clad alps mere peculiar to other climes. On the day that he armed at Kosciusko, along with a party from Sydney, Mr Chambers went tobogganing, under conditions which would have tested only skilled men at the game, for although Kosciusko was under a great blanket *of snotv, it fiadi not had a snowfall' for a fortnight. The snow surface,' as a result, was frozen into ice, an'd was more slippery than tne proveroial cel. On tins Air Chambers made a grand slide, whicii ended in snoring injuries. Three laaies accepted Mr Chambers s invitation to a toboggan slide. It was a joyful party that: started, amidst merry iaugnter, down a- glazed surface of 60 degrees. It was not long before the toboggan had bolted. Two of : the ladies were shot out as the toboggan made its wild flight downhill, and were thrown clear, and unhurt, except for a few bruises. The toboggan swept on,, with its two remaining, helpless passengers, Mr Chambers and one of the ladies. It was annihilating distance at the break-neck speed of 60 miles an hour, when, ordinarily, it should have reached a level space which retards the speed of the toboggans before they make their final shoot down to the lake. Ultimately, the bolting toboggan met an immovable mass when it crashed violently into the corner of tho power-house. Th» lady, except for a few bruises, escaped injury. ' But Mr Chambers was less . fortunate. When he was picked up the bone of his right shin had penetrated his underwear, his trousers, and liis puttee, ; and w.as protruding two or three inches. Several teeth were ■ missing, his upper jaw was fractured, and his nasal bone was broken, He suffered from internal injuries as well. . In an impromptu ambulance, and with the.thermometer 15 degrees below freezing point, Mr Chambers started out in this condition, attended by his wife, for the long journey, to Cooma, especially trying for a man nearly 60. For two miles he had to be carried on a snow-sledge, being then transferred to a motor-car. For three hours the doctors operated on him. He is now progressing favourably, thanks in some measure to a fine stamina which enabled him to crack jokes with the doctor. It is the end *of tobogganing on the "grand slam" until show falls, and until experts have proved it safe for sport. ■ •