RUNAWAY TRAMCAR WRECKED

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3095, 28 May 1917, Page 6

RUNAWAY TRAMCAR WRECKED

COLLIDES WITH AN EMBANKI MENT ! PASSENGER DIES FROM SHOCK ! SIX PERSONS SERIOUSLY INJURED By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, May 27. A tram accident whicli resulted in the death of an elderly woman and serious injury to six persons and minor injuries to several others occurred near Onehunga. at 5.30 on Saturday evening. Mrs. Annie Elizabeth Birch, widow, 53 years of age, died shortly afterwards from shock. Those seriously injured were:— Mrs. j. L. Lockwood, Onehunga, severely braised and shaken. Gladys Rhodes, 14 yeare •of age, Onehunga, base of skull fractured, and condition critical. Laura Hazel Birch, 8 years, Onehunga,- left thigh fractured. Arnold Gedge, Parnell, lacerated ankle and shock. Conway Albon, n boy from Mangere, fractured wrist. Mrs. Shaw, 30 yeare, Onehunga, broken linger and shock. The circumstances of the' accident are of nu unusual nature. The car, drivon by Motorman Sidney Colquhoun, with Conductor .1. Townsley in. charge, left for Onehunga at 5.2 p.m! with a full load of passengers. The car stopped at the corner of Selwyn Street, which is the last stop before turning into Queen Street, Onehunga. The motorman received the usual signal to proceed from the conductor, who was inside, and started the car again. Simultaneously he leaned out from his platform and looked back to see that all intended passengers had entered, this being in accordance with practice. As lie did this Colquhoun overbalanced and fell into the roadway, lacerating his hands and knees. The official statement is that the motorman was alone on the front platform, and that the donr was closed, thus no | one inside the car saw him fall. Colniibonn tried to clutch the handle-bar at the side of the tram as he fell, but failed He called out. but no one heard. By the time lie had regained his feet tlie car was too far away to allow ofhim overtaking it. Selwyn Street stoppill" place is situated at the top of- a rise, and from Selwyn Street, to the turn into Queen Street is over 300 yards, and | straight ahead, about 15 yards away, is a solid bank of blurstone rock. When the motorman fell off (he car it vapidly miined speed, and when it reached the | sharp curve into Queen Street it jumned the track and collided a few seconds afterwards, head on, with the embankment. Both front platforms were telescoped, and the wooden body was wrenched from the nndcr-trucks. I'iye or six'windows on each fiide were smashed and much of the undergear badly hvisled. but the car remained upmht. Until Hie car left the rails the conductor and the fifty nassengers were ignorant of the foot that it was not under eo»h-ol of the motorman. Those in the front compartment received Hie worst shock. Some were hurled lxidflv over the heads of the neople in front of them; others-were thrown lo tho floor. The conductor was in the middle of th" car collecting fares, and was thrown off his feet, but n»t hurt The utmost confusion reigned, and in the darkness the cries of women and children cut by flying particle _ of "lass, which fell in showers, or bruised bv the woodwork, wero piteous. 'First aid was rendered to the wounded passengers by tbreo medical men, asMsl"d bv the police and residents. " Mrs. Birch, who was 'extricated from the wreckage in the front part, was in a "rave condition, due t> shock 'acting on a weak heart. Rte was removed to a iiei7hb. • n»'! residence, wlwr> she sub'spmient.lv died. The live' person* lrc.st scrionslv hurt were 'token to the hospital, and Ihe lc" seriously 'injured # worc attended to in houses in the vicinity.