CAR FALLS 200 FEET

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 60, 4 December 1933, Page 10

CAR FALLS 200 FEET

Backed Over Cliff Into Lyttelton Harbour ONE DEAD, TWO INJURED By Telegraph.—Press Association. Cliristcliurcli, December 3. A sedan car driven by David Ludecke, factory overseer, of Dampier Street, Woolston, ran over a steep bluff ■at Corsair Bay, Lyttelton, into the harbour 200 feet below. The driver and three passengers were all thrown out. The driver escaped serious injury, but the other three were injured, one fatalThe victims of the accident were Mrs. Jessie Harris, aged 30, of 126 McKenzie Avenue, Woolston, who died, from injuries a few minutes after being picked up; George Staut, aged 8, and Kevin Stant, aged 6, who were both seriously injured aud were taken to hospital. They were later reported to be improving. Mr. Ludecke was trying to park his car on the roadside overlooking the bluff but backed over the edge and the car somersaulted over the cliff. A man who was fishing on the rocks below at the time had a narrow escape from injury, being struck on the shoulder by a piece of the broken car. An eye witness of the accident said that when Mr. Ludecke backed his car off the road to park it, it. appeared to gather speed. It seemed as. if the driver had inadvertently put his foot on the accelerator instead of on the brake. The car crashed through a fence, immediately turned over backwards, and so continued hurtling end over end until it crashed on the rocks at sea level.