CAR SOMERSAULTS INTO RIVER

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22050, 25 March 1937, Page 16

CAR SOMERSAULTS INTO RIVER

FATAL ACCIDENT NEAR PALMERSTON NORTH

FALL FROM RAILWAY BRIDGE

(FRSSS ASSOCIATION TK.EQttAK.)

PALMERSTON N., March 24.

A shocking tragedy occurred at Rangiotu township, about 12 miles from the city on the Palmerston-Fox-ton highway, very late last night, when a five-seater motor-car travelling southwards left the highway at a bend, struck a fence near a road bridge, somersaulted a considerable distance after a tremendous impact with an iron post, went completely over the railway, where it leads on to the railway bridge nearby, and rolled down the bank into the Aroua river. It landed with its wheels upward. Residents nearby, hearing 'aj™£ crash, investigated, and summoned the police and ambulance, but it was obvious that the occupant must have been killed or drowned in the time mat The occupant of the car was Arthur Ernest Sexton, middle-aged, with a grown-up family. He was manager of the Wilson Dalrymple property at Himitangi. iU ~. .~_ The police .believe that the duver fell asleep at v the wheel. ' . Measurements by the police show that the distance from where the car left the road, to where it struck the fence was 52 feet. The next visible point of contact was on the other side of the raised roadway, another 50 feet. From there to the point m the river where it finally came to rest is another CO feet. ' , An examination of the scene showed that the car made a tremendous leap after leaving the road and plunged through a fence alongside the railway line. It flattened out an upright rail projection and leaped a small gap on to the end of the railway bridge which runs parallel for some yards away from the road bridge. The car then skidded 20 feet along the railway bridge, jumped off to rough, hillocky grass eight feet below and nose-dived 25 feet over the bahk at the edge of the .river striking near the base of this with its bumpers. Then it rebounded, somersaulting nearly across the river, and landing upside down.- The back of the turret top struck the piling of the former railway bridge three feet out of the water. The vehicle settled down, and was almost submerged. A sack of potatoes in the luggage compartment was hurled across the river. ' - After several hours, of work, a breakdown gang got the car out of the water. The driver was found across the rear seat.