CAR FALLS FROM CLIFF ROAD

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26492, 6 August 1951, Page 6

CAR FALLS FROM CLIFF ROAD

DRIVER KILLED NEAR SKIPPERS PASSENGER ESCAPES WITH BAD ABRASIONS (New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, August 5. One man was fatally injured and another suffered severe abrasions when a car left the road between Queenstown and Skippers, and rolled 350 feet down the mountainside. The dead man was: Ivan Gordon, of “Oakleigh,” Heriot. Keith Kidd, of Timaru, was injured. His condition to-night was satisfactory. Mr Gordon, the driver, and Mr Kidd were travelling down the Skippers Saddle road about 5.30 p.m, to-day, when they met a car coming in the opposite direction. Mr Gordon pulled to the side of the road to let the other car pass, and the wheels apparently slipped over the edge. Mr Kidd had a miraculous escape from death when he was thrown clear as the car hit a fence 15 feet below the road.

Mr Gordon was unable to free himself. The car finally came to rest 350 feet below the road, near the Ben Lomond homestead.

An urgent call was put through to the Mount Cook and Southern Lakes Tourist Company’s office at Queenstown. Dr. M. F. Soper, assisted by Mr W. A. Anderson, rushed to the scene. The two men were pht on stretchers, and taken in one of the company’s buses to the Frankton Hospital. Mr Gordon suffered severe head injuries in the accident, and died on his way to the hospital.