Youth Drowned, Two Others Escape

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30740, 3 May 1965, Page 14

Youth Drowned, Two Others Escape

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, May 2.

A youth was drowned and his two flat-mates narrowly escaped death when their car crashed off the end of the Birkenhead wharf on Saturday night and landed upside-down in about 10ft of water.

The drowned youth was:

John Hare Matenga Hone, aged 19, of 37 Wright road, Point Chevalier.

His two friends who were dragged from the water almost exhausted after attempts to save him, are Claude Hatrick Dunn, aged 34, single, a driver, and Charles Stephens, aged 24, single, a driver, both of the same address.

The two men, who were taken to the North Shore Hospital were saved from the water by Mr F. C. Brodie, of Birkenhead, who arrived on the wharf to fish about 6.55 p.m., soon after the crash. He saw them illuminated in the water by the lights of the submerged car. He held out his rod to the closer man and hauled him to the steps.

Mr Brodie then ran about 500 yards for help. On his return he flung a lifebuoy to the two men who were then floundering a little way from the steps.

The two men were then hauled to safety. One of them, Mr Dunn, was semi-conscious.

Soon afterwards the police and a Navy diver, Norman Eden, arrived. Although Mr Eden had no gear he dived several times.

Then a Birkenhead sports store proprietor and parttime diver, Mr D. Quinlan, arrived with diving gear and began diving.

“I could see another man •in the car. He was crumpled up over the front seat,” he said. “The windows were up and the doors jammed.” Sergeant J. H. Paterson of the Takapuna police said one of the men who escaped, Charles Stephens, later told the police the men had not

been familiar with the Birkenhead district and were completely lost. In the darkness they had driven straight on to the wharf and over the edge.

Mr Stephens told the police that when the car came to rest in the water he fumbled wildly with a door, and suddenly found a gap and was free. Mr Dunn, who was still in hospital tonight, had dived twice in attempts to rescue the third man. A tow truck arrived soon after 8 p.m. and the car was hauled clear of the water.