Held On In Bid To Halt Runaway Car

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31349, 20 April 1967, Page 9

Held On In Bid To Halt Runaway Car

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 18. A man flung open the door of a runaway car tonight and, with other vehicles swerving to avoid a collision, clung to it for 40 yards before bringing it to a stop a yard from a power pole. Mr B. J. E. Scott, aged 26, of Epsom, was driving along lianukau road about 7.10 p.m. when he saw the small latemodel car running backward down a slight incline near the eonier of Onslow avenue.

“I saw the car in my headlights and thought that the driver must have collapsed,” Mr Scott said later.

“I jammed on my brakes and ran for the car, which must have been doing between five and eight miles an hour.

“I threw open the door and tried to put the handbrake on, but there was an attache case over it, so I grabbed the steering wheel and held the door open with my other hand. “My feet were dragging on the ground and I practically wore through the sole of one of my shoes.

“The car was heading for a pole and there were cars swerving everywhere, but I was able to run it up the gutter and stop it just before it hit” The owner of the car was visiting a friend in Manukau road. Since December last year, there have been reports of five accidents in the Auckland area involving runaway cranes and lorries.