CAR STRUCK BY TRAIN

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22910, 5 January 1940, Page 8

CAR STRUCK BY TRAIN

MAN AND WIFE KILLED

ACCIDENT NEAR PUKEKOHE

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TZXZSSAJI.) AUCKLAND, January 4. The level crossing of the Waiuku branch railway, about one mile north of Pukekohe, was the scene of an accident involving the loss of two lives this morning. The victims were:— John Boyd Marshall, aged about 70 a farmer of Taitimu, Graham's beach, Waiuku. Frances Violet Marshall, aged about 50, wife of Marshall. Mr and Mrs Marshall left their home at Taitimu in a small saloon car about 7.30 this morning, en route for the Centennial Exhibition at Wellington. At Pukekohe they turned north along the main road to Auckland. The driver of a cream lorry noticed the car just ahead ,of him. Approaching the levelcrossing the view to the right down the line is partly obscured by a bank. The car continued on to the line; but as it did so the Waiuku train, which had left the' Paerata station about three minutes before, came into view from the right, and crashed into the car. Neither the train nor the car was travelling at a fast speed; but the car was carried up the line on the front of the locomotive and wrecked, with pieces scattering to right and left. Mrs Marshall was thrown clear about two chains up the line from the point of impact. She was seriously injured. Her husband was carried with the chassis and engine of the car about another two and a half chains. The wreckage then came off the front of the train, and Marshall was in it. The train was stopped a few yards further on. Marshall died in a few minutes. ' Mrs Marshall was carried, to the nearest house, where Dr. Begg. of Pukekohe. attended her. She had a double fracture of the right thigh and grave internal injuries, and her death occurred at the Auckland Hospital. The crossing has been the scene of at least two other accidents, one of which ended fatally. The Waiuku train was delayed about 40 minutes. • Mrs Marshall was Marshall's second wife. They had "been married about two years. FATAL INJURIES MAN KICKED BY HORSE 'PRESS ASSOCIATIONS TELEGRAM.) ' DUNEDIN, January 4. While riding a horse at Wmgatui about 7 o'clock to-night, Archibald William Stodart, a married man, with four children, who lived in Gladstone road, Mosgiel, fell, and the reins became entangled round a wrist. He was kicked by the horse, suffering injuries from which he died.