FATAL CAMPING TOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 30, 5 February 1935, Page 11

FATAL CAMPING TOUR

CAR FALLS INTO GULLY

TWO OCCUPANTS THROWN OUT

BOTH DEAD FROM INJURIES

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

NELSON, This Day.

A double fatality occurred last evening when a car containing two Christchurch residents on a camping tour went over a bank on the Whangamoa Saddle Road. The dead are:—

Mr. Herbert Berry, aged 50, painter, Beretta Street, Christchurch. Mrs. Berry (wife of Mr. Herbert

Berry), aged 40.

O;i Sunday Mr. and Mrs. Berry and Mr. and Mrs. C. Arnold, of Martin Avenue, Christchurch, accompanied by Miss Arnold, left on a motor camping tour, intending to do a round trip via Blariheim, Nelson, and the West Coast. Tlj,ey stayed at the Hapuka River (near Kaikoura) on Sunday night, and the two cars, driven by the two men of the party, then proceeded to the reservoir reserve camping ground at Nelson. Mr. Arnold, who had traversed the road several times previously, was leading and the other car was following closely. On descending the Whangamoa Hill on the Nelson side near Brown's Cutting at 7 o'clock last night, Mr. Arnold passed a motor-truck driven by Mr. C. Bennett, of Rai Valley, who was proceeding uphill. Mr. Arnold's car passed the c«-her vehicle on the wider portion of the road:- Mr. Berry's car,' on approaching the truck, went to the side of the road and1 the outside wheels got over the bank, with the result that the vehicle, an open tourer, hurtled down the side of the hill into a steep gully.".

Mrs. Berry was thrown out about 15Q feet below the road, and Mr. Berry was found 30 to 40 feet lower down with the' car nearby. ■' •

Mrs. Arnold had, looked back in time to see, gravel' falling from the side of the road, so then: car was immediately stopped. Passers-by rendered all possible assistance, while Mr. Arnold proceeded '.on to ring for an .ambulance. '

Considerable difficulty was experienced in conveying the injured motorists to the road, owing to the steep nature of the hillside. Mr. Berry died in,the ambulance, and Mrs. Berry was admitted to hospital at 9.45 p.m. and died at 7 o'clock this morning, ; both from head injuries.