Bad week-end road toll

Press, 7 December 1987, Page 3

Bad week-end road toll

Three fatalities in the Canterbury region have contributed to a high week-end road toll. A West Coast woman died when the car she was driving plunged into the Otira Gorge after leaving the road at Paddy’s Bend. The police were not informed of the crash until her car was seen in the gorge yesterday morning. They were unable to say yesterday when the accident happened. The body of the middleaged woman was later recovered. The police were trying to reach next of kin yesterday and expected to be able to release her name this morn-

ing. A Waimate man died after a head-on collision between his car and a utility near Ealing just before 4 p.m. on Saturday. He was. Joseph Shannon Studholme, aged 72, of Te Mako, near Waimate. Mr Studholme had been driving a car with his wife, Janetta Constance Studholme, as passenger. At a dog-leg about 2km north of Ealing on State highway one, their car collided with a utility driven by Brendon James Sugrue of Rangitata. Mr Sugrue and Mrs Studholme were both in a serious but stable condi-

tion in Ashburton Hospital yesterday. • The third accident claimed the life of a youth whose car hit a bridge near Culverden yesterday morning/' He was Andrew Reece Brice, aged 17, of Culverden. Mr Brice was the only occupant of the car, which hit the bridge about 2km south of Culverden 4 on State highway 7. The accident happened about 7.10 a.m. The three deaths contributed to a national weekend road toll which stood at nine last evening, the othe fatalities aHJ occurring in the North Island.

The first was at 8.50 p.m. on Friday in Otara, where a man,, aged 20, died in a collision between two cars.

Later than evening, a 23-year-old male pillon passenger died in a collision between a motorcycle and a truck. Late on Saturday morning, a man, aged 62, died when a car and a van collided in Wanganui City. Early that afternoon a 24-year-old male motorcyclist died when his machine collided with a car in Hawke’s Bay. On Saturday evening, both male drivers were killed in a head-on crash between two cars in Porirua.