MOTORING CRASHES

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 April 1932, Page 5

MOTORING CRASHES

TRAIN & BUS COLLIDE

PASSENGERS KILLED & INJURED

[PEB PBESS ASSOCIATION.]

MASTERTON, April 10.

A serious accident occurred at the Renall Street level crossing on the outskirts of the town at 7.50 o’clock last evening.

A bus, with about twenty passengers, driven by J. T. Rutherford, and conveying a party to a country dance, was caught on the crossing by the mail train from Wellington, which was travelling fast on a down grade. Struck by the train on the rear lefthand corner, the bus was swung round and rolled over, coming tp rest about fourteen yards up the beyond the crossing. One passenger, Frank Gillespie, aged 19 years, was hurled sideways across the road, striking a fence, and he was killed instantly.

Two other passengers, a man named M. C. Finlayson and a girl named Joyce Palamontain, were injured. The driver and the majority of the passengers had a lucky escape, though neafly all of them suffered cuts and bruises.

The passengers were thrown out in all directions after the impact with the train. A number of the passen gers had the unnerving experience of seeing the train dashing at them before it hit the bus. The enginedriver saw the bus from some distance back, and he applied his brakes, but there was no chance of stopping the train.

LORRY CAUSES DAMAGE. i

PALMERSTON NORTH, April 9. A sensational accident occurred in Church Street shortly before midnight, when, after crashing into the back of a stationary car and flinging a number of people to the ground, a heav-

ily loaded motor lorry swerved across the road, mounted the foopath, and wrecked the front of a confectioner's shop. Mrs. Reid and her son, D. Reid, who were engaged in front of the car trying to get it to start, received injuries necessitating hospital treatment. They are not in a serious condition. Two other persons nearby were slightly injured. Mrs. Reid’s car was badly damaged. Eye-witnesses say that they thought an explosion had occurred. When the first impact took place, heavy rain was falling. Mrs. K. Bird, the occupy ant of the shop, was upstairs and escaped injury. She described the shock as being worse than any earthquake. It appears as if the wheels of the lorry locked after striking the car. The lorry was driven by Silvester George McKay, of Palmerston North.