THREE LIVES LOST

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 14

THREE LIVES LOST

CAR'S FATAL PLUNGE

PASSENGERS TRAPPED

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, This Day. A shocking tragedy occurred at-10.30 last evening at Wallacctown, six miles from, the city, when a sedan car containing six passengoi's plunged into the flooded Makarevva River. Three wore drowned and the others narrowly es-. eaped. x ThVvictims are:— Mrs. Milne, wife of Mr. Frank Milne, manager of the "Wright's Bush Dairy Factory. Belle Milne, aged nine, her daughter. Miss Jean Somcrvillc, a sister-in-law. Thcise who escaped were Mr. Frank Milne, the driver of the car; Miss Lily Milne; and Mr. G. Taylor, a dairy factory assistant. . , The family were returning home after shopping in the city, and were proceeding at a slow speed across the bridge,1 when,, the wheel slid off the j runner on the decking, causing the car to skid. It struck the right side lightly, but evidently the woodwork was rotten, for it snapped and the car plunged over, sliding down a steep bank into deep water. The' three survivors got clear and reached land with difficulty. i Aid was summoned and strenuous efforts were made to lift the car, but it was 3 o 'clock in the morning before the bodies were recovered. : Mr. Milne is an experienced driver, who knows the road well. He states that the tragedy could not have happened if the railing had been sound. "I don't know how I got out of the car," he stated. "I think I must have been jerked backwards through the window. For a moment I thought I could pull some of the others out, for the ear seemed to stay near the I edge. Then the current caught it and swept it further out and into deeper water." .. . ' ' I