Reacted To Emergency

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30901, 6 November 1965, Page 3

Reacted To Emergency

(N Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, November 5. A train driver today jerked his unit to a stop six feet away from a small car stalled on a level crossing at Simla crescent, on the suburban Johnsonville line. Inside the car were an

elderly woman and two young children. Another woman stood on the tracks waving to the train to stop. The engine-driver, Rod Berry, of Lower Hutt, said tonight he only just managed to stop his unit—the 8.11 a.m. train from Wellington to Johnsonville.

“It was touch and go,” he said. “I saw the car from a fair distance and started to slow down. I thought it had crossed the lines and when

I saw it had stalled, I slammed on the emergency brakes and the train shuddered to a halt six feet from the car.”

Only one of 32 Waiuku children was injured when their chartered bus and a rail-car collided on a crossing at Whangarei at 11.40 a.m. today. The injured child, Barbara McKenzie, aged 13, was admitted to hospital with an injured foot.

The front of the bus was torn off, but the driver, Roy Allan, of Waiuku, was not hurt. When the vehicle stalled he told the children to get to the back of the bus. The driver of the rail-car, Jack Goodison, went into the passengers’ compartment when he realised the collision was inevitable.