“SOAP-BOX DERBY"

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 April 1939, Page 8

“SOAP-BOX DERBY"

SPECTATORS INJURED. MELBOURNE, April 3. A boy and a woman were seriously injured in Victoria’s “Soapbox Derby” which yesterday attracted an excited crowd of 20,000 people to St. Kilda. Kenneth Read, 9, of Coburg, was standing behind the finishing line when two wheels came off a soapbox which had just completed the course. Read tripped on one of the wheels, and as he fell on his head, struck the other wheel. He was admitted to the Alfred Hospital suffering from a fractured skull.

Mrs. L. Richards, 52, of West Brunswick, was knocked down by a soapbox which, got out of control, and ran off the track at high speed. She was admitted to the Alfred Hospital with a fractured leg. A third soapbox careered into the crowd, but no one was injured. First aid was given to five women and one man, who fainted in the crowd which lined the course.

After Robert, (“Lovers”) Lane, 11, had won the “Derby” in his low-slung cream and blue box, the huge crowd broke the barricades, and eight policemen, had a hard task to keep them under control as hundreds of persons raced down the track to congratulate the place-getters. Each of the four finalists had an escort of two policemen to shepherd him through the crowd after the race. Only 5,000 spectators were expected, but many thousands more lined the track and assembled in the Esplanade to watch the grand parade of 125 soapboxes. Thirty races were run in the afternoon. Six boxes started in each of the first three heats, but after three had crashed into the crowd, the number in each heat was reduced to four. The Apex Club, which organised the day, in aid of the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, announced that another Derby would be held next year.