Five Die When Car Plunges Into River

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29325, 3 October 1960, Page 14

Five Die When Car Plunges Into River

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, October 2. Three girls and two men were drowned when a car fell 18 feet into the Oraka river, Tirau, at 2 o’clock on Saturday morning. Three men got out of the submerged car and scrambled up the bank after battling the strong current The accident was at a bridge on the Okoroire road, half a mile from Tirau. The river is narrow with steep banks. Those who died were: Miss Pauline Clarkin, aged 18, machinist, daughter of Mr and Mrs F. A. Clarkin, of Rose street, Tirau. Miss Maida Walsh, aged 20, machinist, of Putaruru. Her parents live in Timaru. Miss Frances Lorraine Nordberg, aged 18, machinist, daughter of Mr and Mrs C. Nordberg. of Arapuni. John David McNamara, aged 26. agricultural contractor, single, of Putaruru. John Patrick Deer, aged 24, agricultural contractor', single, of Putaruru. He was a business partner of Mr McNamara. Those who escaped are Graham Worth, of Waotu, near Arapuni, who was the owner and driver of the car, James Glenn Pettit, of Hamilton, and Duncan Allen, of Putaruru. The car was going from Okoroire to Tirau after a social gathering. It failed to take the turn on the bridge, rolled over, fell down the bank, and came to rest upside down in the water. The first to arrive at the scene was Mr A. J. Robinson, of Putaruru, who heard someone call out as he crossed the bridge. When be stopped his car and ran back a young man came out of the darkness. “He was shocked and very distressed,” Mir Robinson said later; "I asked him what had happened, but at first he was too dazed to tell me.

“I kept pressing him with questions until he said: "There are others down there—still down there’.”

The other men came up the bank soon after and Mr Robinson telephoned for the police and a doctor. The crash of the car as it went into the water was heard by two brothers. Messrs A. Shaw and C. Shaw, who live a quarter of a mile away. “We took a length of rope and went down in our car,” Mr A. Shaw ,said later. “Attempts were made to reach the car and rescue the people trapped in it, but the conditions were too difficult.”

The car was lying in such an awkward position on the riverbed that two breakdown trucks were needed to haul it back to the road at 6 a.m.

With the five bodies still in it the car was towed to a small hedge-enclosed field in Tirau. There, in the presence of the police, a parent and ministers of religion, the bodies were removed. The social gathering was for the members of two Palmerston North basketball teams who arrived at Tirau earlier in the evening. The teams were to play against Putaruru on Saturday, but after the tragedy the basketball games and further social activities planned for the week-end were cancelled.

The damaged car was left at Tirau and will be mechanically checked by a vehicle inspector of the Transport Department. The bridge was the scene of a fatal accident earlier this year. A car ran into the river there, killing one man and injuring another.