WOMAN KILLED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 96, 24 April 1942, Page 6

WOMAN KILLED

RUNAWAY PETROL WAGON

CAREER DOWN HILL

Careering flown Brooklyn Road after a mechanical failure had left the driver with control over the steering only, a heavily-laden petrol tank-wagon shortly after 10 a.m. today crashed into a post on the eastern side of Nairn Street and overturned, killing a woman who was standing on the footpath near the post and who was caught .beneath the lorry as it fell on its side. At the time of going to press the] woman had not been identified. "j The driver of the lorry was Mr. W.! G. Gilbert, of 8 Lancaster Street,! Karori. He escaped with a lacerated wound over his left eye and shock, and the Free Ambulance took him to hospital. ' It is understood that the lorry contained about 1100 gallons of benzine, and that the normal practice of1 the driver, when it was heavily laden, was to bring it.down Brooklyn Road, which is long, winding, and steep, in low gear. This -morning, apparently through a breakdown in the transmission and the subsequent failure of the brakes, he lost control of the vehicle about half-way down the hill, near the top of Bidwell Street. He steered it down -the hill'for several hundred yards, with ( the speed increasing as he went until, as it approached the intersection of Willis Street and Nairn Street, it was estimated to be travelling at 55 miles an hour. SHAJtP RIGHT-HAND TURN. As he neared the intersection the driver evidently decided to make a sharp right-hand turn with the intention of Wringing the lorry to a"&top against a post on the left-hand side of Nairn Street, going up. He succeeded in this diflcult. manoeuvre, but the turn at speed, combined with the collision with the post, toppled • the vehicle over on its left side, and it was this last movement which brought about the fatality.' • Petrol in large quantity began to run from the overturned vehicle, and three fire engines were summoned, but there was no.fire. One of the fire engines had to lift the petrol lorry •at the end of a tow-rope before the woman's body could be extricated*and the lorry was then brought into an upright position to prevent further waste of petrol. The front of the lorry was extensively damaged, and the driver was fortunate in escaping as he did.