13 dead in road, boat accidents

Press, 23 October 1978, Page 1

13 dead in road, boat accidents

Eleven persons had died on New Zealand roads by last evening and two had drowned since the Labour Day week-end holiday began officially at 4 p.m. on Friday. The Secretary for Trans, port (Mr E. Edwards) described the carnage as a tragic, needless loss of life. He said that for the whole of Labour Day week-end last year there had been only two road deaths. The toll this week-end was likely to be one of the worst. In Christchurch, a woman died and three men, including her husband, were injured in a two-car collision in Humphreys Drive, Linwood, at 6 40 p.m. on Saturday. The woman was Irene Bamber, aged 41, of 4 Duncan Street. Sumner. Peter George Bamber. aged 40, of the same address. was admitted to The Princess Margaret Hospital with minor internal injuries. He was reported in a fairly comfortable condition last evening. Graham Donaldson, of 38 Maltby Avenue, Timaru, was admitted to the intensive-care unit of the Christchurch Hospital with serious head and internal injuries. He was later transferred to The Princess Margaret Hospital. His condition was not available late last evening. Ronald Malcolm Williams, aged 41, 79 Oram Avenue, suffered moderately serious head and arm injuries. His condition was fairly comfortable last evening. A boy died and his elder brother suffered serious injuries when a car and a south-bound goods train collided near Burnham Military Camp about 10.40 a.m. on Saturday. The dead boy was Paul Robert Geeion, aged 13. of 29 Kirk Road, Templeton. He was a passenger in the car. Mark William Geeion, aged 17, was admitted to The Princess Margaret Hospital with head and arm injuries. His condition last evening was given as fairly comfortable. In the worst accident so far a teen-aged brother and sister and two other persons died after a headon collision between two cars on State Highway 1, Bkm south of Oamaru, at 10.50 p.m. on Saturday. The dead were Margaret Abernathy, aged 18, of Hampden, the driver of a Volkswagen car which burst into flames on impact; Christopher Abernathy, aged 17, of Oamaru, Reginald Oats, aged 20, of

Oamaru, the driver of the other car; and Rodney Laurence, aged 17. of Invercargill, who was dragged from the blazing Volkswagen by a passing motorist and taken to hospital with third-degree burns. There were two passengers in the Holden driven by Mr Oats. Lawrence Jackman. aged 22, of Waitaki Bridge, was taken to hospital with multiple fractures and severe facial injuries and Marion Hill, aged about 18, also of Waitaki Bridge, suffered a fractured skull. At Waikaka, a pedestrian was killed at 11.30 pan on Saturday when she was struck by a van. She was Florence Sutherland, aged 60. of Waikaka. North of Auckland, a man died when the car he was driving was in a collision with a milk tanker on State highway I, about Bkm north of Warkworth. about 7.30 a.m. yesterday. He was Thomas Leonard Robinson, aged 21, a lineman, of Auckland. Near Hamilton, a motorcyclist aged 17, died on Saturday and a woman pedestrian, aged 71, was killed near Cambridge. The body of a man whose 6m boat capsized at the Paringa rivermouth in South Westland on Saturday was found yesterday' morning near the scene of the accident. He was Jim Stewart, of Paringa. He had been fishing from the boat in a fairly rough sea. said a spokesman for the Greymouth police. Another man drowned when a dinghy was swamped while ne was rowing with a companion to a yacht moored about Ikm from shore in Waitemata Harbour about 12.15 a.m. on Saturday. He was Roy Joseph Neill, aged 36, a car salesman, of Hamilton.