CAR CRASHES INTO POLE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29272, 2 August 1960, Page 16

CAR CRASHES INTO POLE

Wrecked, Then Gutted

With an unconscious woman driver at the wheel a large late model American car swerved across to the wrong side of the Main North road, near the southern Kaiapoi borough boundary, yesterday morning. It passed between a telegraph pole and a gorse fence, smashed in to the next pole, snapping it off at the base. The car then turned end over end, and came to rest about 20 yards further on on its side in a fence, facing the direction it had been coming from. The accident occurred about 10.50 a.m.

Some time after the dazed woman, who had lost control of the car when she fainted, crawled from the wrecked vehicle it burst into flames and was gutted. .The driver, Mrs Daphne Ta vendale Elliott, aged 38, of the Waikari Service Stores, suffered from bruises of the chest when she was hurled forward against the steering wheel, a black eye and other facial abrasions. She was treated by Dr. C. F. McKee, of Kaiapoi, and was taken to the Kaiapoi Maternity Hospital to await the arrival of her husband to take her home. When the car caught fire a call was sent to the Kaiapoi Volunteer Fire Brigade, but by the time the brigade arrived one end of the vehicle was enveloped in flames, which had spread to the hedge. Fire extinguishers and first aid equipment were used immediately, but because of the position of the vehicle on its side there was difficulty in quelling the blaze. A rope was attached to the rear wheels and the car was pulled back on to its four wheels. Because of the danger of the petrol tank exploding and because the brigade had a hose line across the road, all traffic was halted for about three-quarters of an hour. For more than 100 yards on either side of the scene of the accident about 40 or 50 vehicles banked up, and their drivers and occupants helped to swell the large crowd which gathered. Three policemen fr.om Kaiapoi, including one who was on holiday, were at the scene.

Mrs Elliott was travelling south towards Christchurch when the accident occurred on a straight stretch of road about 150 yards south of Vickerys road. She was the only person in the car. When the car veered on to the wrong side of the road a motorist approaching from the opposite direction had to swing violently over on to his wrong side to avoid a collision.