Car hits truck; woman dies

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 6

Car hits truck; woman dies

A woman, aged 50, was fatally injured on Saturday evening when the car in which she was a passenger hit a truck parked at the corner of Wainoni Road and Colac Place. She was

Linda Whakangehe Rousch, married, of 15 Hampshire Street, Wainoni.

Two other women passengers suffered injuries and were admitted to hospital. Their names have not been released by the police. One, aged 25, suffered head injuries and was reported in a critical condition.

The other, also aged 25, suffered minor injuries. The driver of the car, a man, aged 34, escaped unhurt. ■ . The accident occurred • at 9.24 p.m. A Christchurch Fire Brigade unit used metal-cutting equipment and air bags to free the car passengers. A

front wheel of the truck protruded into the wrecked car. The police last evening appealed to any witnesses to the accident to notify the motor accident inquiry office of the Central Police Station. The accident was the worst of six within five hours, giving the St John Ambulance Brigade, traffic authorities, and hospitals an extremely busy night. The five other accidents involved minor or moderate injuries to nine persons. The first of the succession of evening accidents involved a cyclist who was hit by a car in Fendalton Road, at 8.31 p.m. He suffered moderate head injuries. A man, aged 18, was injured when his motor-cycle and a car collided in Ferry Road at 11.24 p.m. Two ambulances were needed to take five occupants ' two cars to hospital

after the cars collided in Ensors Road, at 1.17 a.m. yesterday. The victims are four men and a woman, aged from 15 to 25. Ten minutes later an ambulance was called to an accident in which a man, aged 22, and a woman, aged 19, were injured when their car hit a pole at the. corner of Wainoni Road and Breezes Road. Other accidents were at 4.7 a.m. on Saturday, when a car hit the Styx bridge, injuring one person, and at 11.51 a.m. yesterday, when two cars collided at the intersection of Fitzgerald Avenue arid Hereford Street. One person was injured. The Press Association reported from Timaru that a woman, aged 75, was killed in a two-car collision near Geraldine about 11.30 a.m. oh Saturday. She was May Eleanor Needs, of

At Napier, a motor-cyclist, aged 21, died instantly when his machine was in collision with a car near Taradale at 1.10 a.m. yesterday. He was

Paul Edward Fifield, of

Napier. At Dunedin, a man was fatally injured in a head-on collision between two cars on a main Dunedin road on Saturday evening. He was Leslie Foote, aged 47, of Dunedin.

Mr Foote, who was alone in the car, died soon after arrival at hospital. The driver of the other car suffered minor injuries. At Rotorua, a woman was injured yesterday when a tree fell on the car she was driving. The police said that Pauline Mossman, of Rotorua, suffered shock and minor injuries, and her, car was extensively damaged, when a poplar tree crashed on to it.