TWO DIE IN CAR FIRE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28619, 23 June 1958, Page 10

TWO DIE IN CAR FIRE

Another Man Badly Burnt

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 22.

Two young men died when their pre-war model car overturned, skidded and burst into flarnes in Sandringham road early on Saturday morning. They were: Kenneth James Bennett, aged 19. single, a workman, of 79 Goodall street, Hillsborough. Lionel Joseph Scott, aged 22, single, a millhand, of Mamaku.

Two other occupants of the car were admitted to the Auckland Hospital with burns. They are Reginald Robert Hayson, aged 18. single, a machinist, of Mt. Eden, whose condition tonight was still critical; and William Scott, aged 20. a timber worker, of Mamaku. a brother of Lionel Scott, whose condition is improving. The accident occurred on a bend. The car rolled on to its c ide and skidded 20 yards before striking the back of a parked car and burst into flames. Mr W. R. Arthur, who lives nearby, heard a crash and saw the car ignite with a roar. “I ran outside, but could not get near the car for the heat.” he said. “Then I saw a boy crawl out the front door and over the bonnet of the car to the footoath. He was alight from head to foot.

“Mv wife ran to get water and I tried to beat out the flames on the boy’s body with my hand Then someone brought wet blankets and wrapped them around him. He was conscious all the time and asked me how his mates were.

“The flames caught on to the other car and people kept calling out that it would blow up.” Residents found the other survivor lying on the roadway 30 yards down the road. Fire engines from Mount Albert and Mount Eden rushed to the scene, but it was more than half an hour before the bodies of the two youths could be recovered. Firemen had to chop away .the bodywork of the car wit! axes to release them.