ACCIDENTS

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24149, 7 January 1944, Page 6

ACCIDENTS

CHILD DROWNED ON WEST COAST CANOE MISHAP IN PUNAKAIKI RIVER From Our Own Reporter GREYMOUTH, January 6. A seven-year-old boy, Frank Lockington, was drowned in the Punakaiki river on the Greymouth-Westport coast road, about 3 o’clock this afternoon. With several other children he was playing in a canoe in the river when the tragedy occurred. The child was not in the water long, but artificial respiration applied for an hour and a half by Mrs H. Cullen, a school teacher, of Ikamatua, proved unsuccessful. On the arrival of Dr. K. Gerstl, of Runanga, there was no sign of life. The child was the only son of Mr and Mrs Frank Lockington, of Taylorville, and was staying at Punakaiki with his grandparents, Mr and Mrs E. Lockington. Mr Frank Lockington, the father of the child, is manager of the Wallsend State Mine.

NURSE KILLED IN JEEP ACCIDENT “ The Press ’’ Special Service AUCKLAND. January. 6.

Two nurses were injured, one fatally, when the jeep in which they were riding struck a stone wall on the seaward side of the waterfront road near Kohimarama wharf about 10 o’clock last night. They were:—

Nurse Aleida Johanna Barbara Bonnie Smit, aged 22, Point Chevalier, who died in hospital; and Nurse Ann Maud Alpin, aged 24, Charles street, Napier, who suffered concussion and facial injuries. She was in a serious condition today.

When the jeep hit the wall both nurses were thrown from the front seat on to the hard stone beach 15 feet below.

An American serviceman and another nurse, Miss Marguerite Carpenter, of Auckland, who were in the rear seat of the jeep, and the driver, also an American serviceman, were not thrown out of the vehicle and were not injured. After striking the wall the jeep skidded along it and back on to the road, and stopped after it had travelled two chains from the first point of impact. Little damage was done to the vehicle. «