SKIDDED ON GREASY ROADWAY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 119, 17 February 1928, Page 10

SKIDDED ON GREASY ROADWAY

CITY COUNCIL BUS OVERTURNS PASSENGERS’ MIRACULOUS ESCAPE WAS SPEED EXCESSIVE? Dominion Special Service. Auckland, February 16. Twelve people had an amazing escape this morning when a City Council bus skidded eighty feet on a greasy roadway and overturned approaching the Whau Bridge. Five of the passengers were taken to the Auckland Hospital, where they were treated in the casualty ward. All were able later to go to their homes. The bus was making the- 10.16 trip from Surrey Crescent to Henderson.

Nearing the Whan Bridge, the driver saw a motor-car coming from the other side and slowed up to let the vehicle cross the bridge first. It was suggested that the brakes locked. The heavy bus slithered and swerved across the roadway, left the concrete and 'doing a complete turn finished on its side facing the direction from which it came. The Injured Passengers. Women screamed when the bus, with a crash of broken glass, overturned. Those hurt were MRS. S. LOVERIDGE, Grey’s Avenue, ’ cut on the forehead, which needed stitches. MISS HOWLEY, Dominion Road, injuries to arm and chest. W. NORTH, tramway motorman, cut over eye. MRS. LUSCOMBE, Cook Street, slight abrasions. ROBERTA BURT, aged two years, of Blockhouse Bay, injuries to leg. In a car following the ’bus were Messrs. J. A. Langley and H. P. Taylor. They opened the emergency door at the back of the bus and helped the people out. It was not long before the Auckland Hospital ambulance arrived and took those hurt away for treatment. Most of the people suffered more from shock than injury. Men from the council garage at Avondale soon had thei bus on its wheels again. All the glass work in the bus was broken and some of the framework was damaged. The vehicle was able to be driven back to the garage. A Lucky Woman. One of the passengers in the bus had been in two bad smashes this week. She is Miss D. Jenkins, of Grey’s Avenue. She Was not even scratched, but her mother got a nasty cut °n the forehead. Miss Jenkins was a passenger in a motor-car on Monday night, when it collided heavily with another, and several people were badly hurt. One girl suffered so badly that even now she cannot move either of her legs. On that occasion, too, Miss Jenkins was not hurt, she being the only one who did not get a scratch of some kind.

One of the most fortunate features of the crash to-day was the fact that a mother and baby got out of the bus at a stop just before the accident happened. One or two people who saw the accident say that the bus was travelling at a fast speed, but the traffic inspector said that there was no suggestion of excessive speed. One bystander said that the always travelled at a fast pace at this point. There was a bad approach to the bridge, and it had to be taken very carefully.

Necessity for Wider Bridge.

'‘The accident demonstrates the consequence of not having a full width bridge across Whan Creek,” said Mr. A. E. Ford, manager of Auckland tram.tvays. He added that at busy times the local body concerned regulated traffic at this point, and an inspector was frequently on duty there. The checking of traffic on the down grade had the effect of concentrating grease on the surface, and when motors were pulled up warm grease was apt to drip from the engine, making the surface extremely dangerous when it was wet.