ONE DEAD, 12 INJURED Bus skids over bank

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32976, 24 July 1972, Page 3

ONE DEAD, 12 INJURED Bus skids over bank

(New Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH, July 23.

A man was killed and 12 persons were injured when a bus skidded over a 30ft bank on the way from the Chateau Tongariro to Taumaranui on Saturday.

Eight ambulances, including three from the Italian tunnelling company, Codelfa-Cogefar, were called to the scene, and at least five doctors helped attend the injured. The man killed, the driver of the bus, was George Wote King, aged 31, married, with four children, of Frankton. Two persons were seriously injured — Shane Capper, aged 18, of Hamilton, who is in the intensive-care unit, and Neville T. Crump, aged 19, of Hamilton.

The other 10 persons in hospital, all from Hamilton, and all in a satisfactory condition are:

Miss Sally Cottis, aged 20, Terry Gilshnam, aged 19, and his wife, Vivien, aged 16, Miss Ann McKenzie, aged 15, Wayne Radcliffe, aged 18, Graham Tresidder, aged 22, Miss Diane Walton, aged 15, Miss Lorraine Monkley, aged 16, Mayn Lesley, aged 18, and Miss Margaret Donne, aged 18. Motor-cycle party The bus, owned by Hamilton Airways Taxis, Ltd, was chartered by the Hamilton Outcasts Motor-cycle Club and left Hamilton at 3 a.m. on Saturday. The party reached the Chateau at 7.30 a.m., but, because it was raining, left at 10.30 a.m. for Taumarunui. At the intersection of the National Park-Turangi highway and the Ohakune-Tau-marunui highway the bus skidded off the road, and crashed over a 30ft bank, ending with its front in a creek. The passengers were thrown to the front of the bus and the seats piled up with them. Constable B. A. Ware, of Tongariro, described the scene as like a battlefield. Many of the injured were cold and wet, and some were unconscious. Motorists help At least 20 passing motorists stopped to help, said a traffic officer, Mr D. J. Walters, of Taumarunui. “We ran out of ambulances and asked for stationwaggons. Like a shot, two were offered. One of them was full of furniture, but the driver was willing to make room for the injured. But then an ambulance arrived, and we only used one stationwaggon. “It was fantastic; everything worked like clockwork. I have never seen such cooperation from passers-by at an accident. If they couldn’t help, they kept out of the road.”