SIX DEAD, 30 INJURED
MOTOR-VAN CRASHES DOWN BANK
MELBOURNE, Feb. 6. When a picnic van carrying 43 passengers skidded on loose gravel and overturned down an embankment, six persons were killed and 30 others injured. Two of the injured persons are not expected to live. The persons killed were five men and an 18-months-old baby, whose mother is in a critical condition. The party comprised cricketers from the Coburg Social Club and members of their families. The team had been playing a friendly match at Sugarloaf, and was returning to Coburg along a rough road 46 miles from Melbourne. The vehicle impaled itself on a gum tree, which sheered off its canopy. The van then toppled down the embankment. As the van bounced off the tree, men, women, and children were thrown in all directions. Two died instantly when the vehicle rolled on them, and the other dead and injured littered the road and embankment. Though suffering severely from shock and cuts, one man ran for nearly four miles to the Sugarloaf Creek Hotel for help. Twenty-seven persons were trapped inside the shattered van, which had to be cut apart before they were released. The driver and others in the front seat escaped injury.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26031, 7 February 1950, Page 5
Word Count
204SIX DEAD, 30 INJURED Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26031, 7 February 1950, Page 5
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