WOMAN DROWNED AT SUMNER

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27861, 9 January 1956, Page 8

WOMAN DROWNED AT SUMNER

COLLAPSE IN SHALLOW WATER

BATHER IN UNPATROLLED AREA

A woman was drowned in water not over her head 50 yards south of Shag Rock, Sumner, about 3.30 p.m. yesterday. She was Ethel Joyce Withell, aged 36. wife of Ronald William Withell, of Templeton.

Mrs Withell is believed to have fainted while swimming with her two young children. Glynis and Gregory. Mr I. McD. Stewart, captain of the Sumner Surf Life-saving Club, said that Mrs Withell was apparently dead by the time her husband dragged her from the shallow water to the beach. A passer-by applied artificial respiration, but there was no response. Mr Stewart said that when Mr Withell noticed his wife’s plight she was lying head down in the water 20 yards from the beach.

Dr. J. D. Thompson, of Sumner, was called, and he said that Mrs Withell was dead.

The surf club’s pavilion is half a mile away, and Mrs Withell was bathing in an unpatrolled area.

DRIVER SERIOUSLY INJURED CAR OVERTURNED IN COLLISION Three men were injured, one seriously, when two cars collided at the corner of Barbadoes and Hereford streets at 11.45 p.m. on Saturday. The impact caused one car to roll over, and fire broke out in the ignition. The driver of the car that overturned, Robert John Tamplin, aged 25, of 465 Barbadoes street, suffered severe chest and head injuries. He fs on the seriously ill list at the Christchurch Public Hospital. The passenger in his car. Brian Hawkesworth, of Palmerston North, was treated at the outpatients’ department for minor cuts. The driver of the other car, James Murray King, of the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Wigram, suffered from shock, but was allowed to go home. A St. John ambulance took Mr Tamplin and Mr Hawkesworth to hospital. A unit from the Christchurch Fire Brigade extinguished the fire that broke out in Mr Tamplin’s car. Mr Tamplin’s car was extensively damaged, but only minor damage was caused to the front mudguards and radiator of Mr King’s car. MOTORIST BADLY INJURED CAR STRIKES ROAD MARKER (New Zealand Press Association) NAPIER, January 8. Severe head injuries were suffered by Mr Arnold Davidson, the DeputyMayor of Napier, when his car struck a concrete road marker in Carlyle street, Napier, at 3.15 a.m. today.' He was dragged unconscious from the capsized car. The accident occurred in very heavy rain, and Mr Davidson was dazzled by the lights of an approaching car.