ESCAPE FROM DEATH.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19816, 2 January 1930, Page 13

ESCAPE FROM DEATH.

«—. CAR PLUNGES OVER BANK. PASSENGERS' TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE. Seven passengers in a Duranfc sixseater sedan had a miraculous escape from death on Monday evening, when the car in which they were driving went over the bank on the Sumner side of tho Sumner-Lyttelton hill road. The accident occurred about 7.15 p.m. Many cars were going to and from Lyttelton at tho time. It appears that the car had just got to the end of the long, steep grade in second gear to a point about 200 yards from the sharp bend just before the top is reached. Here the driver evidently found that it would not climb the remainder of the grade in second gear, and endeavouring to engage first gear missed the change. The engine stalled and the car commenced to run backwards. In the excitement of the moment instead of turning the wheel to make the car run into the bank tho driver turned it in the other direction, and the car shot over the bank. A wire fence failed to cheek its fall in tho slightest, and it slithered in a curious curved path to the gully below, a distance of about thirty feet. This, however, was by no means the end of the fall. The point in this gully where the car came to a momentary halt is the top of the only waterfall in this particular valley. When it reached tho place which might well be described as the first stage of its fall, the front of the car was then facing downhill. To the horror of those who still re--mained inside it again started forward, and finally crashed over the rocky waterfall into the pool below, a distance of approximately 30 feet. Fortunately the pool was neither very big nor deep, and so the chance of being trapped by water in a closed car was not added to the occupants' misfortune. The passengers were all women except two little boys, who were in the back. The driver was a fairly young girl, and had a friend with her in the front seat, who was being driven over to Lyttelton. In the back seat was the driver's mother with a baby in her arms, two small boys and a daughter. The mother and the father of the baby are both in Auckland. When the car went over the edge the elderly woman with the baby was pushed out by her daughter, who also managed to get out with the baby still in her arms and rolled down the hill, her one fear being that the car would roll on top of her. She suffered very much from shock, while the baby received slight scratches. Of those who remained in the car and had what is nothing less than a miraculous escape from death, the driver was suffering severely from Bhoek, but was uninjured. The other passenger in the front seat received one or two cuts on the hands and was taken to Lyttelton for treatment. One boy was cut on the thigh and the other received a bump on tho head. The part of the road where the car went over is one of the widest on the Sumner-Lyttelton highway. It has recently been - widened, so that as well as the extra width made by the excavations at the side of the road extra space is also provided by the spoil which has been dumped over the bank. Standing on the road and looking down to the place where the car finally came to rest, it is inconceivable that anybody could come Out of such an accident alive. When the car came to rest it was lying on its left side facing down hill, the rim of the front right hand wheel having been wrenched off and lying in the pool. The other wheels were thrown out of alignment, the glass windows were broken, and the coachwork considerably damaged where it had come in eontaet with rooks in its fall. The chassis appeared to be twisted and altogether it was a sorry wreck of a car which was recovered yesterday afternoon and towed to town.