FOUR MEN INJURED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20067, 13 October 1939, Page 8

FOUR MEN INJURED

NAPIER CAR SMASH

SKIDDED ACROSS ROAD THREE POLICE HURT (Per Press Association.) HASTINGS, this day. Four men, including three police constables, were badly injured when a car in which six people were travelling from 'Napier to Hastings left the highway near Cooper's crossing, Napier, at 7.20 o’clock last night. The car plunged down a slight bank, and capsized across the railway tracks. Three of the injured men are wellknown members of the Hastings police force. The injured were:— Richard Byrne, police constable, married, aged about 26: serious injury to spine and severe shock. Edward Douglas, injuries to back and severe shock. Patrick Joseph O’Connor, police constable, married, aged 28; fractured left leg and shock. R. G. Allan, police constable, married, aged 41; injury to left hand, abrasions about the body and severe shock, condition satisfactory. Well-Known Footballer Two other occupants of the ear were a well-known footballer, Laurie Clothier, married, aged 27. freezing works foreman, Napier, and another unidentified person who escaped with bruises and slight shock. The car was a tangled mass of wreckage. The cause of the accident is not known. Heavy rain was falling at the time and visibility was bad. The car, a modern six-seater saloon, appeared to have skidded across to the incorrect side of the road, where it mounted a slight rise, and plunged down a sft. shelving bank. The vehicle ripped clown about 20yds. of fencing, and came to rest ' on its side across the railway line. An early arrival on the scene summoned an ambulance and the police, and the injured men were removed to the ‘Napier Public Hospital. A full examination could not be made last night, because of the severe shock from which the men were suffering. The wrecked car delayed the 8.10 p.m. inward-bound goods train for half an hour.