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Press, Volume CX, Issue 32459, 20 November 1970, Page 1

Two men had a narrow escape from death yesterday when their 30cwt utility truck crashed through guard rails on the Evans Pass Road, Sumner, and dropped 150 ft.

The men, Kevin Boult, of 45 • Bellbrook Crescent, Shirley, and Lawrence Robert Collin Wood, of 20 Niagara Street, Dallington, were carried half a mile along the bottom of the pass on stretchers (see picture above) to waiting ambulances from Christchurch and Lyttelton. Mr Boult was admitted to Christchurch Hospital with moderately serious head, arm, and internal injuries, arid shock. His condition in the resuscitation ward last evening was described as “only fair.” Mr Wood was treated at the hospital for head, leg and arm injuries, and discharged. Their truck ran off the road after the hood flew up and smashed against the windshield. The truck disintegrated as it bounced down the cliff;

the men were thrown clear. Pieces of the wooden deck and the load it was carrying were scattered over a wide area. The back of the truck was broken. The two men were several yards apart, but some way from the wreckage. The Sumner police were called only minutes after the accident at 3.45 p.m., when the occupants of a car travelling behind the truck reported the crash. Police, having descended to the wreckage on ropes, called for help from the crowd that had gathered. The ambulances, equipped with the Neil-Robertson stretchers used for spinal injuries, drove across fields at the bottom- of the pass as far as possible; but the men still had to be brought out for half a mile on foot over rough ground. Three Steel Brothers tow trucks spent four hours recovering the wreckage. The towing division manager (Mr R. E. Hill) said that 290 ft of cable had been used. A 15-ton winch on the road above pulled out the sections.