CAR’S FATAL PLUNGE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 139, 9 March 1943, Page 3

CAR’S FATAL PLUNGE

Petty Officer Killed

Blunging 200 feet in his car from a bend on the Onslow Itoad to the Hutt Road below, a naval petty officer received multiple injuries yesterday from which he died on the way to Wellington Hospital. He was Pettv Officer Maxwell Richardson Barlow, R.N.Z.N., 15 Cockayne Road, Khandailah.

It is stated that Mr. Barlow had left his home a few minutes before on his way into Wellington, and was alone in the car. It was his intention to leave by train for Auckland last night. From marks left by the car it would appear that it failed to take the turn on the second bend of Onslow Road before it runs into the Hutt Road. The two-rail fence which guards the almost sheer drop to the Hutt Road was broken about halfway round the bend, and marks left in vegetation on the hillside suggest that the car landed first about 20 feet below the broken fence and then, turning over, plunged the remaining distance to tne Hutt Road in one leap, crashing into the gutter on the side farthest from the sea and against the rock cliff. It came to rest with its wheels uppermost, completely shattered. It fell about 200 yards on the Hutt side of the Tawa Flat tunnel entrance. I. Mr. Barlow was badly injured nut still breathing when dragged from the wreckage, but when the ambulance reached the hospital he was dead.