THREE PERSONS KILLED

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27303, 20 March 1954, Page 6

THREE PERSONS KILLED

ELECTRIC TRAIN HITS LIGHT TRUCK

HUTT RAIL SERVICES DISRUPTED

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON? March 19. The driver and two women passengers were killed when a light truck m which they were travelling was struck by an electric unit at a level crossing between the Wingate and Taita railway stations shortly after 5 p.m. today. The victims were:—- * Harold Gordon Faulds, aged 65, a machinery dealer, of 78 Copeland street, Lower Hutt, who was the driver of the truck. Mrs Mary O’Leary, aged 74, of 7 Westbury street, Naenae, and Mrs Ursula Mary Marshall, aged 39, of 65 Naenae road, Lower Hutt, a daughter of Mrs O’Leary,

The truck was carried for 80 yards by the electric unit. Little damage was done to the train, but peak-hour services in the Hutt valley were disrupted for three hours, Mr Faulds is thought to have been killed instantly. Mrs O’Leary died before being admitted to the Hutt Hospital, and Mrs Marshall died shortly after being admitted. The accident occurred at the Guineas street level crossing. An overbridge to do away with the crossing is being built. Witnesses said the truck was stationary with its front wheels in the middle of the track when the train struck it.

Other drivers, waiting on either side of the line in Guiness street, which connects the main Hutt road with the Eastern Hutt road, said the warning bells were ringing for a south-bound train, which had just passed. Before the bells had stopped ringing, the truck moved forward on to the liner- The traih from the south came on to the crossing without any break in the ringing of the bells. The tray of the truck and a signal standard were thrown aside near the point of impact. The occupants were thrown out of the truck at intervals up the line. Mr Faulds’s body was the nearest to the truck. Thousands of workers’ were held up in stationary electric units, at railway stations or at bus stop:;, through delays of up to 40 minutes. The services were not restored to schedule until after 8 p.m.

WOMAN FATALLY INJURED v

STRUCK BY TAXI WHILE CROSSING ROAD An elderly woman pedestrian was fatally injured about 10.10 p.m. yesterday, when she was struck by a taxi as she was crossing the road in Montreal street just above the intersection with Worcester street. She was Mrs Alice Josephine Black, aged about 67, believed to be of Governor’s Bay. The taxi, driven by Charles Raymond' Whyte, was travelling north along Montreal street. Mrs Black was taken by "St. John ambulance to the Christcnurch Public Hospital, where she died about 11 p.m. CYCLIST INJURED Ronald Kemp, of 27 Rowcliffe crescent, suffered a broken leg when he was knocked off his cycle by a car in Colombo street about mid-day yesterday.

He was taken by ambulance to the Christchurch Public Hospital, where his condition early this morning was reported to be satisfactory. »