TWO CARS AFIRE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 299, 14 September 1936, Page 10

TWO CARS AFIRE

Crash and Blaze on Hutt Road ' -■' ' ~ - ■'■■■ BREAKDOWN SEQUEL Occupants’ Miraculous Escapes ' Three persons had a Miraculous escape from serious injury or death when one mdtor-car hit the back of another and both took fire on the Hutt Road shortly after 7 o’clock on Saturday evening. The cars were •, fotally destroyed, but the only.hurt ithe occupants suffered were minor injuries to two passengers in the i second car. Those injured were Mr. H. Hobbs, who received slight shock and a wound to his left hand, and Mr., F. ‘ Knox, concussion and shock.. Both men are residents of Gorge Road, Ngahaurauga, and labourers by occupation. About 7.15 p.m., a car owned and s driven by Mr. James Perrett, 40 Owen * Street, Newtown, with Mr. Robert Wylie, 213 The Parade, Island Bay, as a passenger, was proceeding along the Hutt Road, from Petone, toward Wellington, and when about a mile north of Ngahaurauga, the car suddenly developed engine trouble and stopped. Mr. Perrett set off to walk to the service ' station, at the Ngahaurauga Gorge junction, and his companion also got out of the car and went over to the . cycle track, running parallel with the road. Then the second car, the driver of j which has not yet been identified, came . along, also travelling southward, and ran into the back of the stationary car, with a resounding crash. Fire immediately broke out, and the styorig northerly wind blowing fanned the flames so that in a matter of seconds the two cars were the centre of an inferno in which the petrol tank of the first car had exploded. The three occupants of the second car scrambled oht before the flames reached them. “Was there a crash!" said Mr. Wylie after the accident. “I saw the whole thing. I saw him coming. There was a tremendous noise." , Both the cars were tourers and had been running close to the white lino mai'king the edge of the bitumen. The first car was still on the bitumen when it was hit and was half on and half off after the crash. Glass was thrown right across the road, and for several feet around. Skid marks on the road, about 12 yards behind the rear of the second car, indicated the point at which the driver had applied his brakes. The blaze was a most spectacular 1 one, for the cars burned furiously and the flames were surmounted by dense clouds of smoke, so that it was clearly visible from Petone beach.. The second car .continued to burn for two hours. There was a considerable amount of traffic on the road at the time. Traffic officers and police, who were soon on the scene, found that many motorists had parked in the vicinity of the blazing cars. Some of them were exceedingly thoughtless, and were as near as two car-lengths behind the rear car, whose petrol tank had not been ignited, although the flames were roaring around it. These vehicles had to be moved on and southbound traffic was diverted to the cycle track. Two Free Ambulance vans were also promptly on the scene, after receiving a call at 7.25 p.m. It was stated that a broken magneto chain was the cause of the breakdown of Mr. Perrett’s car..

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