Accident Victim Not Found For 14 Hours

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32199, 19 January 1970, Page 12

Accident Victim Not Found For 14 Hours

(New Zealand Press Association) WANGANUI, January 18. The body of one of two youths killed when a “hotted-up” Model A Ford crashed down a 30-foot bank into a creek near Turakina early on Saturday morning was not found until 14 hours after the crash.

The accident happened at 2.30 a.m. but the police were not told that the youth was missing until early on Saturday afternoon, about 12 hours later.

A police team then made a second search of the accident area and found the body in about 3ft of murky water at 6.15 p.m. The youth was Malcolm McEwan, aged 17, of London Street, Wanganui. The police said he was the driver of the vehicle.

A second youth died in Wanganui Hospital on Saturday morning from injuries suffered at the scene of the accident He was

Neil Kenneth Butler, aged 17, of Kaponga, Taranaki.

The police do not know whether Mr Butler’s injuries were suffered when the car—described as a beach buggy —crashed, or when he was struck by a second car following a few minutes behind | it

The Marton and Wanganui police, who are each handling aspects of the investigation, said yesterday that it was still not clear what happened at

the accident on the Turakina Beach Road, one mile from State Highway No. 3. The confusion is believed to stem from the fact that key witnesses—including two passengers from the beach buggy—left the accident be-

fore the police arrived. The police also want to inteiyiew four other youths and two girls who were in two cars travelling in convoy with the beach buggy shortly before the accident, and who found the crashed vehicle.