WRONG WAY IN SQUARE Pursued Car In Heavy Collision

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32392, 3 September 1970, Page 1

WRONG WAY IN SQUARE Pursued Car In Heavy Collision

One person was taken to Christchurch Hospital, from where he later disappeared, and two others were interviewed at the Christchurch Police Station after a high-speed chase through the city which ended when their car (shown at right), travelling the wrong way round Cathedral Square, collided with another vehicle about 8.40 p.m.

Two young women who were in the struck car were unhurt but their vehicle was extensively damaged about the right front. After the vehicles collided, the car being chased mounted the kerb, bent a 2in diameter steel standard to the ground, and smashed into an iron lamp-post 12ft beyond the kerbing.

A number of persons standing at a nearby bus-stop scattered to safety as the car came sweeping towards them.

One of the two Ministry of Transport patrol cars which had been pursuing the car—that driven by Traffic Officer R Berry—had to swing hard right to avoid crashing into the young women’s car. It also mounted the gutter and stopped alongside the car which had hit the lamp-post The incident began when the car, in which there were

two youths and a girl, failed to stop when a traffic officer signalled it to do so in Hagley Avenue. The car sped off south-west down Hagley Avenue with the officer in pursuit. The cars reached speeds of more than 50 miles an hour. They swung east into Moorhouse Avenue and then north into Stewart Street before cutting back into Hagley Avenue. Against Flow A second traffic patrol car —driven by Traffic Sergeant L W. McLauchlan—joined in

the chase and at one time it and the car being pursued almost collided. The cars travelled into Oxford Terrace, east along Lichfield Street, and north along Colombo Street In Cathedral Square the pursued car swung east, travelling behind the Cathedral and almost threequarters of the distance round the Square against the flow of traffic before the collision occurred. Missed Bus In the Square the pursued car narrowly missed a bus and a police dog patrol van driven by Constable P. F. Kane. After the collision the driver, who comes from Blenheim, scrambled from the damaged car and ran off through the Square and west down Worcester Street. Constable Kane chased him on foot The fleeing driver had a good start on Constable Kane and was apprehended only after members of the public who had joined in the chase stopped him. A St John Ambulance Association vehicle was called to take the badly injured male passenger, Kevin Paul Ross, of 22 Maldon Street, Sydenham, to Christchurch Hospital, from which he later disappeared. In the accident he was knocked unconscious, suffered deep lacerations to the scalp and a leg injury. Neither the driver nor the female passenger suffered other than minor injuries. Beer Bottles The whole of the front suspension of the pursued car collapsed in the crash and the engine was broken off its mountings under the crumpled bonnet. The windscreen was and the glass was strewn over a wide area.

The front doors were sprung open and the dashboard pushed forward where the male passenger struck it. There were a number of empty beer bottles, some of them smashed, in the front of the car.