MOTORING MISHAPS

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 June 1930, Page 2

MOTORING MISHAPS

DRIVERLESS CAR’S CAREER

[special to “star.”]

AUCKLAND, June 14

Careering down Parnell Road early yesterday afternoon, a driverless car knocked over a lady and her son, aged ’six years, and came to rest on the footpath against an electric light pole.

Mrs Wetherspoon, wife of P. Wetherspoon, confectioner, of Parnell Road, fortunately received only bruises and shaking, and her little boy was unhurt. Both had a remarkable escape from injury.

The car, a sedan model, had been hired by Fong Ark, Chinese greengrocer. He loft it without the engine running, outside a laundry opposite the junction of Parnell and St. George’s Bay Roads, 300 yards above the scene of the accident. The car was facing toward the city, and without attracting attention, it set off down tile hill, gathering speed until opposite Parnell Post Office, it was travelling at a.very fast pace. The near front mudguard struck Mrs Wetherspoon and flung her headlong upon the road, and the little boy was also thrown down. Had they been a foot or two nearer the kerb, both must have been run over, and seriously injured. The car then swerved at. an angle, and mounted the footpath on the lower corner. It missed a nearby building picture theatre by two feet and crashed into a pole.

CYCLIST KILLED

CHRISTCHURCH, June 13.

William Frederick Irving, married, a City Council employee, was found very badly injured at 6.10 p.m. on Lincoln Road, near Halswell. He died shortly afterwards. His bicycle lay on the roadside near him.

The police have been unable to discover how he received the fatal injuries, but it is surmised thatjhe was riding the bicycle and that he was struck by a passing motor car.

LORRY-DRIVER’S DEATH.

WELLINGTON, June 14.

Albert Bell Shelbourne,- 52, driving a lorry, found he was in the wrong street, and attempted to turn round. The lorry ran backwards, turned over and killed Shelbourne. At the inquest the verdict was accordingly. MOTORIST NOT GUILTY. AUCKLAND, June 13. , An insurance agent, Reginald Cecil Waite Taylor, was charged at the Hamilton Supreme Court to-day with negligently driving a car at Huntly on the night of January 24, so as to seriously injure a married woman and her daughter, aged 18 years. He was found not guilty after a brief retirement of the jury.