HOLIDAY ACCIDENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 January 1938, Page 7

HOLIDAY ACCIDENTS

REEFTON MAN INJURED

POLICE ARREST DRIVER Found lying on the roadside about a mile and a-quarter on the Greymouth side of Reefton, at 2.20 a.m., on January 1, Hugh Paul Hampson, middle-aged, single, of Reefton, was removed to the Inangahua Hospital in a critical condition, with a fractured skull, a broken jaw, and severe facial injuries.

A sequel was> the arrest at Greymouth, on Saturday evening, of George Bennett Marsden, 21, labourer, of Mawheraiti. He appeared before Mr F. W. Shallcrass, J.P., in the Magistrate’s Court, Greyanouth, to-day, and was charged that, on January 1, at Reefton, being the driver of a motor vehicle, where an accident had arisen directly from the use of such motor vehicle to Hugh Paul Hampson, he did fail to stop, and ascertain whether he had injured that person, and did not render to such injured person all practical assistance. Detective-Sergeant H. E. Knight: In this case. I would ask that accused be remanded to appear at Reefton, on Monday next. I will probably then have to ask for a further remand, owing to the condition of the injured man, which is very low. Mr J. W. Hannan, who appeared for accused, asked for bail. He said that he understood the police were prepared to accept one surety of £2OO. The Detective-Sergeant agreed, on condition that accused reports every second day, to the police at Reefton. Bail was allowed in £2OO, on the condition indicated.

WESTPORT COLLISION. WESTPORT, January 2. Severe concussion and a badly lacerated scalp and right ear injuries were suffered by G. R. Wimsett, a Westport businessman, when a sedan motor-car he was driving came into collision with a car driven by Owen Prince, of Westport, at the intersection of Peel and Wakefield streets, about 1 a.m. yesterday. Wimsett was admitted to the Buller Hospital, and had not regained consciousness late to-night. He is on the dangerously ill list. Mrs. Wimsett, who was in the car with him, suffered a lacerated right ear and shock. She was admitted to the hospital, but was well enough to go to her home to-night. Prince, who was the only occupant of the other car, was unharmed. Both vehicles were extensively damaged. After the impact, Wimsett’s car mounted the footpath and crashed through a corrugated ifon fence into an empty section adjoining the convent grounds. MOANA MAN KILLED CHRISTCHURCH, January 2. A motor-cyclist, Elmsly Norman Williams. aged 27, died at the Christchurch Public Hospital to-day, as the result of severe head injuries suffered in a collision with a motor-car in Sawyers Arms Road on Friday afternoon. Williams, who lived at Moana, had been staying with relations at 77 Middleton Road, Christchurch. Shortly after 3 o’clock on Friday afternoon, he was returning from Waimakariri, travelling south along Sawyers Arms Road on his motor-cycle, when ( he collided with a motor-car travelling west. The car was driven by ' Frank Joseph Novak, of 351 Devon Street, East New Plymouth. Williams was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

The right-hand side of the car was extensively damaged, • and Williams’s motor-cycle was badly smashed. An inquest was opened at the hospital to-day, before the Coroner, Mr. E. C. Levvey. Norman Rule Williams, of Middleton Road, gave evidence of identification, and the inquest was adjourned sine die. FOUND DEAD ON ROAD AUCKLAND, January 2. Within a quarter of an hour of the expiration of the Old Year, a motorist passing the intersection of Manukau road and Silver road noticed the body of a man lying on the road within a few feet of the tram tracks, and on investigating, found the man was dead. He is believed to be the victim of a “hit-and-run” motorist. A St. John ambulance was immediately summoned, but the man was obviously dead on its arrival, having suffered a severe head injury and heavy loss of blood. The victim was Robert Kerr, a visitor from Pukemiro. Kerr had inspected the same ambulance in the morning that had been summoned near midnight to take him to the Auckland Hospital. He was secretary of the Pukemiro Medical Association and in taht capacity had been shown round the St. John Ambulance station and had inspected the equipment there on Friday morning. He was a miner, aged about 65.

DEATH IN FLAT AUCKLAND, January 2. After lying dead in his flat, in Kingsland, for about a week, the body of Clarence Valentine Maney, a tramway motorman, was discovered on Friday morning. Maney, who,was 48. was last seen at work on December 23. MAORI KILLED ROTORUA, January 2. A young Maori named Edward Fleming, aged 20, of Te Puke, was killed

on New Year’s Eve, when the motortruck in which he was a passenger, crashed into a bank and capsized, about four miles from the Ngongbtaha township. Four other passengers in the truck received slight njuries. The party wks travelling to* Rotorua from Te Puke to take part in the New. Year celebrations. Apparently after passing another vehicle, the truck skidded in loose metal and crashed into the bank and capsized.

The driver, George Dinsdale, had two passengers with him in the cab, and the rest were on the rear of the vehicle. Those in the cab were imprisoned in the wreckage, and the others were thrown off into “the roadway, where Fleming was found unconscious. He died shortly after his admission to hospital.

! MAN ON JIGGER KILLED TAUMARUNUI, December 31. ? Clarence Edward Bishop, a railway l employee, was killed by being struck ■ by the daylight Limited from Welling- - ton, at 4.30 this afternoon. Bishop was returning home to Owhango on a jigger, when the train came suddenly round a bend and tossed the jigger and the man off the line. Bishop’s skull ■ was badly fractured, and his left leg was broken above the ankle. The train was travelling in the same direc- ; tion as Bishop, and caught him as it came round the bend. Bishop, who was 33, was married, and had seven sons under the age of 12. His brother was recently burnt to death in a motor accident near Owhango. BODY IN HARBOUR WELLINGTON. January 2. The body of a man, identified as W. Tweeddale, whose address to-night had not been ascertained, was found floating in the Wellington boat harboui* at 10 o’clock on Saturday morning. The body was removed to the morgue by the police. It is believed that the dead man had relations living in the South Island, but they had not been traced to-night. CANTERBURY CASUALTIES CHRISTCHURCH, January 2. Maurice Lewis, aged 16, of 596 Avonside drive, collided with a motor-car at the corner of Clarence and Riccarton roads early on Saturday afternoon, and was admitted to the Christchurch Public Hospital, suffering from head and chest injuries. His condition this evening was serious. Head injuries, concussion, and a fractured leg were suffered by William O’Callaghan, aged 38, of 73 John’s Road, Belfast, when his bicycle collided with a motor-car on the Main North road near the Belfast School on Saturday morning. His condition was reported this evening as serious. Three persons were injured in a head-on collision between two motorcars on the Bealey Road near Coalgate yesterday morning. All three were admitted to the Christchurch Public Hospital and were reported this even- , ing to be making satisfactory progress. '■

The injured were: Mrs. J. Delaney, (Rawhiti Street. Dunedin), Mrs. H. McKeown (Rawhiti Street, Dunedin), and Mr, R. Sanson (Darfield). Each received head injuries, and was attended by Dr. B. H. S. Aylward, of Hororata, before being taken to Christchurch by ambulance. The two cars, one driven by Mr. Sanson and the other by Mr. H. McKeown (Dunedin), met head-on on an intersection and were overturned bj the force of the impact, a space of 20 yards separating them as they came to rest. Both cars were extensively damaged. There were several passengers in each car at the time of the accident.

U.S.A.’s TRAGIC WEEK-END

NEW YORK. January 1.

The violent deaths throughout the United States during the New Year week-end numbered 132, of wh-Ji mo-tor-cars were responsible for 83. The total is expected to reach two hundred.

N.Z. MATRON’S DEATH

LONDON, January 1

An inquest was held on the New Zealander, Matron Arnold, who was killed on an underground railway, on December 29. It was revealed that she jumped from the train. She had been worried about the preparation of a report on hospital conditions on behalf of the New Zealand Government. A verdict was returned of suicide.