FATAL CROSSING SMASH

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 103, 29 October 1923, Page 8

FATAL CROSSING SMASH

MILK FLOAT COLLIDES WITH, TRAIN.

(BT IBIEORAPH—PRJBS ASSOCIATION.)

AUCKLAND, 28th October.'' A fatality occurred at the George street level crossing about 9.30 o'clock to-night, when an outward bound Henderson train crashed into a.milk float. Mrs. J. A. Burt, of Rocky Nook (45 years old;, was.killed. Her eon Donald (aged seven) received injuries to a leg, and is suffering from shock; The driver of the float, John Taylor (51), a dairyman, of Mornirjgside, received general injuries and head injuries. His condition is serious. Mrs. Burt and the child were being given a lift in the float, which was smashed. The horse was not injured.

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

AUCKLAND, This Day. The fatality was due to "the horse backing on to railway line when alarmed by. the noise* of the approaching train from. Auckland to Henderson. Taylor, who w'aß on a night round and was giving others a lift, was serving, a customer when the horse became restive. He jumped aboard the cart to check the animal, but before he could gain control the float had been backed on to the line right in front of the engine. The cart was smashed to pieces. Mrs. Burt was struck on the head and was picked up dead: on the cattle-stop, Taylor also was unconscious on the cattle-stop, while the boy was thrown on to the cattle-stop with a leg severely injured. The horse was uninjured. The remains of the cart were hurled along the lone, one wheel being found fifty feet away, but the harness was cut and the horse escaped uninjured.