ACCIDENTS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21484, 28 May 1935, Page 12

ACCIDENTS

J CAR DROPS 30 FEET OCCUPANTS ESCAPE SERIOUS INJURY . l-.'ti'. 5,-i A.-JHUI■I.VTIOX 'IT.I.RIUUM. > AUCKLAND, May 27. With an impact heard half a mile away, a touring, car out oi! control on the overhead railway bridge near the intersection of Dominion road and Eden terrace crashed through the right-hand railings of the bridge and plunged 30 feet to the foot of the railway embankment below. The vehicle somersaulted in mid-air, and came to rest smashed to matchwood on its right side. The occupants, John Hardwick, aged (17, married, of Mount Eden, and Vincent Astell, aged 29, married, of Mount Eden, suffered head injuries. Their condition is not considered serious. In the opinion of bystanders they had a narrow escape from death.

The car, which way travelling along Dominion road, was driven by Astell and was involved in a collision with a sedan car proceeding in the opposition direction. The vehicles became interlocked a few yards below the crown of the bridge, and the touring car suddenly slewed round, skidded across the wooden decking to the right, mounted the footpath, and carried away eight feet of the railings. As it fell the car turned over and crashed against the left-hand concrete pylon supporting the bridge, the hood being torn to ribbons and the framework crumpled. The vehicle finished ii., career completely wrecked between the pylon and a telegraph post in tangled scrub and undergrowth several feet from the railway line. The radiator was battered and almost torn from the body. The noise of the crash attracted the attention of many persons, and several men clambered down from the bridge to assist the injured occupants. The other car involved was damaged at the bade and had to be towed away.

WOMAN DROWNED IN JHJLLER RIVER CAR (JOES OVER HANK IN THICK FOf;

''li'Sci.M. to rirc masiia NELSON, May 27. An accident, which resulted in the death of Mrs S. B. Fairbanks, of Six Mile. Murchison, occurred at Longford (Murchison) at 6.30 last evening, when a light truck, being driven through a thick fog, ran oft' the road and over the bank into the bed of the Puller river. The truck, which was driven by H. V. Fairbanks, a son of Mrs Fairbanks, Murchison, had as passengers Mrs Fairbanks, sen., Messrs T. Lester (Church street. Nelson), and Robert Bunn (Murchison), riding on the back of the truck.

Leaving Nelson in the afternoon for Murchison, thick banks of fog were experienced on the Longford road. When about one mile on the northern side of the Longford bridge, the car went off the road, turned over down Ihe bank, and came to rest on (lie rocks near the water in the Bulfer river.

Mrs Fairbanks was thrown out into the water, which runs very swiftly at that point, and was drowned. Her body was recovered at 7.15 this morning about a mile further down the river. The three men suffered minor injuries, all being treated at the Murchison Private Hospital.

MINER FOUND DEAD I'M A. FROM KIVEIMIANK STKCIW. TO Til ?! I'lliVio.' REEFTON, May 27. Michael Bums, a miner's phthisis pensioner, who lived alone at Big River, was found dead to-day by a .search party in the bed of a river not far from his hut. Hi.-; .skull w;ii fractured. He had been missing for some time and a search party of miners and others had been organised. Burns, who was a single man sfi years of age, was subject to fits, and it is thought that he may have had a fit. while walking by the river. Before contracting miners' phthisis, Burns had been a well-known quartz miner, working in various district mines. An inquest was opened yesterday afternoon, and after evidence of ihe finding of the body had been given by Sergeant M. Hodgins, was adjourned until May 31. , '"