Careering Truck Crashes Into Bedroom Of House

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28697, 22 September 1958, Page 10

Careering Truck Crashes Into Bedroom Of House

After jumping a culvert, smashing through- a concrete fence and careering across about 40ft of lawn and garden, a 7J-ton truck came to a halt with its bonnet in an unoccupied bedroom of a house at 396 Innes road about 8.30 p.m. on Saturday. The house, occupied by Mr K. Kenyon, faces directly up Philpotts road, down which the truck had been travelling. This is the second time in 12’ months that a vehicle has overshot the Innes road-Philpotts road corner and ended up in Mr Kenyon’s property. Late last year, a small car was driven by a woman into Mr Kenyon’s garden. Although the truck was extensively damaged about the front neither the driver, Robert Neylon, of 1 Cargill place. North Richmond, nor his passenger, John Brian Burbury, of 38 Brougham street, was seriously injured. Mr Neylon received a slight cut on the forehead, and both received a severe shaking. Both men are employed by a contracting firm which owns the truck. Mr Neylon was taken to Christchurch Hospital by St. John ambulance, treated at the casualty department, and sent home. When the principal of the firm arrived at the house to survey the damage, he was not surprised to learn that the vehicle was badly damaged. As he came through what had once been a gate, he could see the truck's tracks through a 2ft-high four-inch concrete wall, and across the lawn and garden before it had mounted the 18in-high veranda and crashed through the .windows and wall of the bedroom.

Damage in Bedroom Even more positive evidence of the destruction wrought by the truck lay On the lawn and inside the bedroom. A strong wooden post supporting the veranda roof was splintered and

tossed aside by the truck and a decorative trellis on the veranda was demolished. The bedroom was a shambles. Shattered glass from the windows was spread across the room; a single bed, as well as being liberally coated with glass and dust, was damaged when it was struck by the truck and a chest of drawers was also badly damaged when jt was hurled across the room. Flaster was stripped from a section of the wall, a stud was broken and a large section of plaster laths was torn away from the studs. The four occupants were in a sitting-room at the back of the house when the accident occurred-. They said the impact resembled a severe earthquake and a manhole cover in the ceiling of the bathroom, about 30ft from the bedroom, crashed to the floor. Mr Kenyon has lived in his home in Innes road for 25 years —an accident-free period until the last 12 months.