TRUCK SLIDES DOWN HILL

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 190, 8 May 1937, Page 12

TRUCK SLIDES DOWN HILL

Falls Over Wall on to Speedboat BRAKES FAIL TO HOLD IN WET GRASS Dominion Special Service. Auckland, May 7. Careering backward for about 30 yards down Constitution Hill, a motortruck belonging to the Auckland City Council dropped over a nine-foot retaining- wall and smashed to matchwood an outboard motor speedboat in the lane below. The truck, a light one witli a load of metal, was being manoeuvred on a zigzag path about a third of the way up the hill when the back wheels ran on to wet grass. Although the driver applied the brakes immediately, the wheels failed to hold and the truck began to slide down the steep bank. The driver jumped clear and the vehicle continued its descent. Crossing next a pathway, it went down another bank and a second path, ploughing furrows in the turf all the way, and then fell over the wall into tlie lane. Apparently the path surfaces checked its speed in some measure, for it landed on all four wheels on top of the boat and did not overturn, although the load of metal shot out on to the ground. The boat, a craft of fair size, was smashed to pieces for more than half its length. It was owned by Mr. F. 11. Nuan, who was about to move it on to an adjoining section for overhaul after the summer season.