Week-end Road Toll Eight; One In Chertsey Smash

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31210, 7 November 1966, Page 1

Week-end Road Toll Eight; One In Chertsey Smash

A man was killed instantly 7 when his car and a rail-car collided at Chertsey on Saturday in one of eight New Zealand road fatalities at the week-end.

He was: Sefton Waltham Thomas, aged 38, a millhand, single, of 15 Charles street, Ashburton. He was driving his car west across the Kyle road crossing, near the Main South road, about 6.30 p.m. when the car was struck and thrown about 100 ft by the Christchurch-Dunedin rail-car which was travelling about 55 miles an hour. He was alone in the car. The driver of the rail-car said he saw the car on the crossing when he was about 25 yards away and he applied his brakes but could not avoid the collision. The railcar stopped 150 yards from the point of impact. The rail-car was delayed at Chertsey for about 45 minutes with a damaged cowcatcher and windscreen. The car was wrecked. Seven persons died in six other road accidents, the Press Association reported.

Car In River The bodies of an Auckland couple whose sports car had plunged over a bank 20 feet into the Ohinemuri river, near Waihi, were recovered about 3.30 p.m. on Saturday. They were Alexander George Adam, aged 58. a coffee bar proprietor. of Chesterfield avenue, Auckland, and Mrs Margaret Adam, aged 58, his wife. A 12-year-old boy who had gone to the river eeling found the crashed car. The car had left the road at the side of a concrete bridge, struck a power pole and plunged into the river, where it was undiscovered for several hours. Fatally Injured A young man died of injuries suffered when his car hit a pole at Otokia, 15 miles south of Dunedin, at 1 a.m. yesterday.

He was lan Robert Gare, aged 24, of 14 Moore street, Milton. It was the second fatal road accident at this part of the highway since it was opened two years ago. Both Mr Gare and a passenger, Ernest Edwin Anderton, aged 26, of Clarkeville, who suffered head injuries, were thrown out of the car. Both were taken to Waikari Hospital.

Car Hit Bridge A 41-year-old Motueka

bushman was killed at 1 a.m. on Saturday when his car hit a bridge parapet two miles north of the Mapua Post Office on the Nelson-Motueka coastal highway. He was Gordon Thomas Martin Grooby, of Queen Victoria street, Motueka. Mr Grooby was alone. Struck By Car A 26-year-old Scotsman who had been in New Zealand only eight months died instantly when he was struck by a car

in Ellice street, Mount Victoria, at 1.20 a.m. yesterday. Police are withholding his name until relatives in Scotland are notified of his death. Passenger Died A solicitor was killed when the car in which he was a passenger was involved in a collision with another in Pukekohe about 4.15 p.m. yesterday. He was William Grandison, aged 73, of 7 Blair avenue, Pukekohe. Woman Killed A woman was killed, and her husband and a teen-age girl were injured, when their car overturned on the southern motorway near Papatoetoe, about 7 p.m. on Saturday. The dead woman was Mrs Janet McGowen Bone, aged 48, of 3 Melody lane, Otahuhu. William Bone, aged 53. the driver of the car, and Miss Sylvia Hannay, aged 17, of Mangere, were treated at hospital and discharged.