SENSATIONAL CRASH

Evening Star, Issue 25070, 11 January 1944, Page 2

SENSATIONAL CRASH

AIR FORGE VAN OVER BANK VEHICLE HURDLES PEDESTRIAN AIRMEH iFioSPITAL An incident more startling and exceeding in spectacular etfect any peacetime "stunt" in which airmen ordinarily engage, befell 13 members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force in the city last evening. These men were proceeding down Rattray street in an air force motor van from the Taieri aerodrome on their way to the Caledonian Ground in order to attend a sports meeting, when the van got out of control, and was turned into Lower Canongate ; but crashed through the railings skirting that thoroughfare and hurtled down the steep bank, coming to rest standing on end in a small yard attached to the burned-out portion of Speight's branch of New Zealand Breweries Ltd. building. MARVELLOUS ESCAPE FROM DEATH. In the circumstances, the occupants, most of whom were due to compete at the sports, may well consider that .13 is a lucky number, as it is ,a marvel that none was killed, and still more astonishing that, although the whole 13 were removed to the Dunedin Public Hospital, seven of them were able to be discharged within a couple of hours, and of the remaining six, who sustained more or less serious injuries, four were removed to the aerodrome this morning. The two still remaining in hospital are:— L.A.C. Leslie Keeller. A.C.2 W. D. Kiley. But these also are expected to be in a, condition to be removed within a few days. ATTEMPT TO REGAIN CONTROL. The van was driven by Leslie Keeller, and when some mechanical trouble —it is surmised—developed, he evidently considered that there would be a better chance of regaining control by turning into the narrow Canongate thoroughfare opposite Scoullar and Chisholm's factory, where there is a steep up-grade, than by continuing down Rattray street. But it was evidently not possible to keep the van on the narrow roadway, and about 30 yards from the foot, at a sharp bend, the vehicle plunged through the railings, careered down the upper portion of the bank, leapt over a flight of concrete steps, and crashlanded just inside the gate enclosing the yard, a flight altogether of fully 50 feet, the height of the bank being about 30 feet. In its career, the van grazed an unusually large and solid telegraph pole. Had this been squarely struck it is highly probable that some at least of the aimen would have been killed. Lengths of railing which had skirted the ramp and tlie steps were torn awav, one large piece being embedded in the radiator of the van. Ambulances, doctors, and police were immediately summoned and the men removed to the hospital. The van, though' naturally considerably knocked about, is not so extensively damaged as might be expected. FORTUNATE PEDESTRIAN. One extraordinary feature of the occurrence was that the, van, which nuist have somersaulted more, than once, passed over the head of a man who was walking up the steps leading to Canongate; the vehicle, it is stated, missing him by inches only. This man, too, has reason to consider himself extremely fortunate.