HEAVY FOG IN CITY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29233, 17 June 1960, Page 12

HEAVY FOG IN CITY

Cars Forced To Crawl

Swirling blankets of heavy fog dropped oyer Christchurch last night, forcing traffic to crawl in many suburbs, and caused what was considered the fastest shutdown ever known at the city’s international airport. Ten minutes after a heavy roll of fog smothered the airfield all operations stopped.

The only aircraft affected by the closure was the last Viscount flight due in at 8.35 p.m. from Auckland-Wellington, which had to be turned back to Wellington when it was over Kaikoura. Although Harewood reopened at 10 p.m. the Viscount will not arrive until early this morning.

The fog, which began over the city about 6.30 p.m. and which was fairly extensive, was forecast by the Meteorological Office at Harewood, although the fog which blanketed the airport was totally unexpected. In many suburbs fog was so thick that speedomoters dropped to almost zero as cars, playing a sort of followmy-leader, followed each other along bumper to bumper. Car in River

Taxi drivers found fog slowed them down, and caused more than one to wander round a bit. Sockburn, Riccarton, Papanui. Halswell and all the way in to the city from New Brighton were badly affected. So thick was it in Richmond that one car went into the Avon near River road and Medway street about 8.45 p.m.

In an attempt to get the car out of the river one of the breakdown trucks had its chassis broken and the winch gear failed on the second truck. A third from another firm went out and salvaged the car which emerged from the water at 10.45 p.m. In Cathedral square it was quite clear at times while at others the dial on the Post Office clock could barely be seen from the doors of the Cathedral.

About 8 p.m motorists travelling to and from the Shirley district were moving bumper to bumper at about walking pace. The surest guide In the fog was tail lights ahead. Very few motorists tried to steer by the left-hand kerb because visibility was only a few yards. But some of them bumped into the back of unlit parked cars. Street lights were not good as beacons because no more than one could be seen at any time. One motorist took half an hour to travel from the Shirley Intermediate School corner into Cathedral square. Bus services managed to hold their timetables except in a few cases. The fog last night was expected to last until early this morning.

Museum Retailing.—Retail business at the reception counter of the Canterbury Museum is growing. In the last month 219 coloured slides, 148 guide books to the Early Colonists’ galleries, and 34 other publications have been sold. Postcards of notable exhibits may be added to the sale stock.