MOTOR FATALITIES

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 5, 1 October 1926, Page 9

MOTOR FATALITIES

CAR CRUSHED AT LEVEL CROSSING FIVE OCCUPANTS KILLED . INSTANTLY (Rec. September 30, 5.5 p.m.) Sydney, September 30. A goods train ran over a motor-car at a level crossing near Molong, killing all the five inmates of the car—Joseph Astill, Mrs. Staines, a boy named Staines, and two unidentified girls. (Rec. October I, 0.45 a.m.) Sydney, September 30. A further victim of Molong level crossing smash has been identified as John Staines, aged four. The other body, that of a girl of 15, is still unidentified.

The car was just abreast of the crossing when the driver, Joseph Astill, saw the train coming. He was too close to the rails to stop dead, and did not have enough speed to dash across in front of the engine, which smashed through the middle of the car, crushing the life out of every occupant in a second. The bodies were frightfully mangled, and for a hundred and fifty yards along the line remains were strewn, mixed with the wreckage of the car. 1 ... CAR FALLS INTO RIVER 4 TWO MEN DROWNED (Rec. September 30, 5,5 p.m.) Sydney, September 30. A motor-car near Bourke plunged into the river, two men, W. Jones and T. Curtis, being drowned (Rec. October 1, 0.45 a.m.) Sydney, September 80.

Details of the Bourke motor-car tragedv disclose that Jones and Curtiss went for a ride with Richard Luscombe, hotel keeper, of Bourke. They were returning home when the driver mistook the road and took a turning leading to the river. Before the mistake was discovered the car fell twenty feet over an embankment into the river. As it fell the vehicle turned over, pinning the occupants beneath it in shallow water. Luscombe. extricated himself and made his way to (he nearest farm in a delirious state, and could not give a coherent story of tlie happening.