CROSSING SMASH

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 189, 8 May 1931, Page 11

CROSSING SMASH

Woman Killed Outright

TRAIN STRIKES CAR

Daughter Injured

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, May 7.

The Stanley Road crossing at Herriesville, Te Aroha, was the scene of a fatality at 12.45 p.m. to-day, when Mrs.. Ada Spriggs, aged 60, of Aria, near Te Kuiti, was killed outright as the result of the Hamilton-Paeroa mixed train striking the car in which she was a passenger. The driver of the car, Henry Spriggs, of Aria, and a son of deceased, was taking a party to Waihi, and approached Te Aroha via Gordon Road. Straightening up as he reached Stanley Road, he had applied the brakes on hearing the train whistle, and was almost across the rails when the engine struck the rear wheels of the car.

The impact threw Mrs. Spriggs a distance of 30 feet, where she fell on the bitumen pavement, striking her head. She was killed instantly. The car was turned completely over and wrecked beyond recognition. Rose Spriggs, a daughter of deceased, aged 16, received deep' lacerations to her arms and legs, and was removed to Hamilton Hospital. The driver and Benjamin Goldsworthy, aged 4, were unhurt, although considerably shaken. An inquest will be held to-morrow. The Stanley Road crossing is gaining an unenviable record for accidents, and the periodic collisions there are causing considerable concern.