Queen Sees Bus Crash Children At Party

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 10

Queen Sees Bus Crash Children At Party

(New Zealand Press Association) •’ DUNEDIN, February 15. After a terrifying ride down Dunedin’s steep northern motorway in a runaway bus and a crash in which 20 suffered minor injuries, 34 Oamaru school children became special guests at the Royal garden party. “You’ve had a very lucky escape, but you are all right now,” the Queen told them. The Queen and the Duke talked to the children for several minutes.

Nine-year-old Vicky Sherwin, who lost two front teeth in the accident and could not speak properly, said: “It was almost worth it.”

She added: “The Duke said to me, ‘You won’t be able to eat for a while,’ but I said I would.”

A small girl with a sore head said tihe Duke had asked her if she wanted to walk home.

“I said ‘No fear,’ ” she said.

Miss D. Carson, the teacher in charge of the children, said the Queen asked several questions about the children, including how far they had come to see her. Two girls who had been in the bus did not see the Queen. Christine Robertson and Judith Cleverly were still in the Dunedin Hospital suffering from shock. The bus, bringing 36 children from the Oamaru South School to see the Queen, went out of control near the top of the motorway just after 10 a.m.

Could Not Stop The driver of the bus, Mr Cecil Parker, of Oamaru, said that just as he changed down the differential on the bus gave way, and with the brakes overheating and fading he was unable to stop it The bus had gathered considerable speed by the time Mr Parker rounded the corner at the bottom directly opposite the gates at the Botanic Gardens. He was unable to do anything but drive the bus through the double gates, one of which was open. After hitting the gate’s

thick concrete posts, the bus came to a halt about 40 yards into the gardens. It was fairly extensively damaged in the front. Cried Afterwards

Hie children did not leave their seats during the terrifying ride and only panicked and began crying after the bus stopped. The children’s ages ranged from nine to 10 years and all were pupils of Standards 111 and IV. The children not injured were quickly quietened by Miss Carson after the accident and kept in a group away from the injured children as they were being taken to hospital. Twenty children were taken to the Dunedin Hospital. Most of them were treated for slight injuries. The Queen’s medical officer, Surgeon Rear Admiral D. Steele-Perkins, went to the hospital immediately after the accident to see how the children were. While there, he expressed sympathy from the Queen to those who were injured. The Mayor of Dunedin (Mr T. K. S. Sidey) was turning his own private care just inside the gates at the gardens when the bus crashed through. It missed him by a fraction.

Mr H. McLeod, of the Dunedin City Corporation Reserves Department staff, was sitting having a cup of tea under one gate post as the bus smashed into the other one.

At the garden party the children were placed in a special position near the marquee where the Royal pa-ty had afternoon tea.

They were given ice creams and soft drinks. They left almost immediately on the 73-mile return trip to Oamaru in a replacement bus.