MOTORIST KILLED ON LEVEL CROSSING

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 264, 5 August 1939, Page 13

MOTORIST KILLED ON LEVEL CROSSING

Car Struck By Engine CRUSHED AND THROWN AGAINST POST Dominion Special Service. NAPIER, August 4. The first fatal accident in Napier for many months occurred at 11.20 a.m. today, when a motorist was killed almost instantly when his car was struck by an outward-bound engine at the Ellison Street railway crossing, near the Napier Borough boundary. The victim was:—

William James Manson, widower, 710 Charles Street, Hastings.

Mr. Manson was driving from the direction of Hastings along the main Napier-Hastings road, and he turned at the boundary to go over the crossing down Ellison Street. The engine was goihg to the Awatoto shingle pit to pick up trucks of shingle, but had no trucks in tow at the time of the accident. The car was struck when right on the crossing and slightly to the southern end, the point of impact being directly behind the driver’s seat. The whole side of the car was crushed, and the vehicle was thrown against a post on the seaward side of the crossing. Mr. Manson was still alive when people reached him, but, though the only visible injury was a severe cut on the' elbow, he died before the arrival of an ambulance, apparently from shock and internal injuries. The cowcatcher of the engine was twisted by the collision, but it was able to return to Napier under its own power. Mr. Manson, who resided with Mr. W. Corlett, 710 Charles Street, Hastings, was a widower with, no family, but it is understood that he has relatives in the Gisborne district.

An inquest was opened in Napier this evening and adjourned sine die after evidence of identification had been given.