CAR COLLIDES WITH TIMBER LORRY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 223, 17 June 1936, Page 13

CAR COLLIDES WITH TIMBER LORRY

Body Ripped Off Chassis

PASSENGER DEAD, DRIVER IN SERIOUS CONDITION

By Telegraph—Press Association

Blenheim, June 16.

Tragedy overtook a party of six Wairau Valley farmers last evening when they were returning home from attending a funeral in Blenheim. Within a couple of miles of the Wairau Valley township on a straight, wide stretch of highway, their car, which was driven by George Gordon Davidson, collided with a laden timber lorry, with the result that Leonard Leslie Hart, a married man with one child, was killed instantly and Davidson himself is not expected to live. Both received fearful head injuries when the body of the car, a big sedan, was practically ripped off the chassis. Evidently the bodywork struck the men on the heads, with shocking consequences. The four other occupants had a marvellous escape in the circumstances, suffering only severe shock. The accident occurred just after dark. It can only be assumed that the driver of the car miscalculated (he margin necessary to pass the lorry, with the result that the windscreen idt the timber alongside the cab of the lorry driver, Mervyn Prentice.