FATAL COACH ACCIDENT.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2064, 16 December 1869, Page 2

FATAL COACH ACCIDENT.

This morning the town was thrown into a state of painful excitement tJjj-'ongh the publication of a telegram received from to the effect that Cobb’s mail coach in crossing the Kakanui river yesterday evening had been overturned and completely smashed to pieces ; two passengers and two horses being drowned. The driver and other passengers having had a narrow escape. It was then stated the two parties missing were a surveyor or engineer, supposed to be Mr Lawson, the architect, and a young lady, name unknown. A subsequent telegram confirmed the previous one as to the accident, and further stated that one of the bodies had been recovered, and identified as that of Mr Thomas Paterson, Railway Engineer ; the body of the lady passenger has not yet been recovered, but there can be little doubt from what we have learnt that the unfortunate lady is a Miss Ross, late teacher in the North Dunedin school, ar.d second daughter of Mr Donald Ross, fonuerly bailiff of the District Court.

She was on her way to visit and spend her Christmas holidays' with Jher sister, Who resides in Oamaru. The cause of this fatal and melancholy accident it Would be folly to speculate upon with the information to hand. The Kakauui crossing is not considered a dangerous one, although we learn this is the second serious accident thathas occurred there. It is said to be a treacherous river, rising suddenly, and giving but little warning. From a telegram received by a merchant in the town, we learn that the reason given for a delay in shipping wool at Oamaru was that heavy rain had been falling for two days. From this we may surmise that the river was unusually high, and the driver, not anticipating danger, entered the stream, when the leading horses being carried off their feet by the current, the coach was upset, and all the passengers submerged. Immediately on news reaching town, Air F. Alanslield, manager of Cobb’s coaches, started for the scene of the accident. A general feeling of depression has been visible through* out the town during the day.