MAN DROWNED IN RIVER: TRAPPED IN SMALL CAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 October 1947, Page 2

MAN DROWNED IN RIVER: TRAPPED IN SMALL CAR

(P.A.). NEW PLYMOUTH. Oct. 12.

One man was drowned and two others had lucky escapes when a light car plunged over a railless bridge crossing the Waimiha river on the Mangapehi-Pukemako road in the King Country, about 12.38 a.m. today. Smashing a window, the driver scrambled to safety, and a third occupant was saved by a pocket of air.'trapped in. one corner of the almost submerged car. The dead man was James McKenna, aged 44, single, employed as blacksmith at the Behhydale State coal mine. His parents live at Hawera.

The other occupants were: Mr T. E. Dwyer, manager of the Railway Road Services at Bennydale, and Mr P. Gannon,-a miner, of Bennydale. ~ With Dwyer driving, the party left Bennydalfe late on Saturday night to go to a dance at Pukemako. . About six miles from their destination the car Was going down a steep grade towards the bridge when it struck a washout in the road. The front axle snapped and the car careered onto the bridge and over the side, landing upside down on the bed of the swift moving river. . . Dwyer smashed a window ana crawled out. He made desperate efforts to free his companions, but they were inextricably jammed in the back seat of the car. He stopped a van containing six men. The headlights of the car could still be seen under the water, and four of the men plunged in and attempted to right the car, but the swift current turned it over again and swept it into shallows. They again turned the car on its side, and found McKenna pinned by hiS legs. GannOh’s ~ legs werq . pinhed down by McKenna’s body. With water lapping at his chin, Gannon had breathed from an air-pocket in one .corner bf the.car. He had held McKenna’s head from the start in the air pocket, but when he himself lost consciousness Me- 1 Kenna’s head slipped back into the water. ...