CROSSING TOLL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20137, 5 January 1940, Page 4

CROSSING TOLL

LOSS OF TWO LIVES FARMER AND WIFE PUKEKOHE TRAGEDY IDENTITY ESTABLISHED l jeer Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Further details of the smash on the level crossing on the Waiuku branch railway, about one mile north of Pukekohe yesterday morning show that it involved the loss of two lives The victims were: John Boyd Marshall, aged about 70 years, of Taitimu, Graham s Beach, Waiuku. Frances Violet Marshall, aged about 50 years, the wife of John Boyd Marshall. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall left their home at Taitimu in a small saloon car at about 7.30 o'clock in the morning en route for the Centennial Exhibition at Wellington. At Pukekohe they turned north along the main road to Auckland. The driver of a cream lorry noticed the car just ahead of him approaching the level crossing. The view to the right down the line is partly obscured by a bank. The car continued on to the line, but as it did so the Waiuku train, which had left Paerata station about three minutes before came into view from the right and crashed into the car. Neither the train nor the car was travelling at a fast speed, but the car was carried up the line on the front of the locomotive in a wrecked condition with pieces of the vehicle scattering to the right and left. Mrs. Marshall was thrown clear about two chains up the line from the point of impact. She was in a seriously-injured condition. Her husband was carried with the chassis and engine of the car for about another two and a half chains. The wreckage then came off the front of the train and Mr. Marshall was in it. The train was stopped a few yards further on. Mr. Marshall died in a few minutes. Mrs. Marshall was carried to the nearest house, where Dr. Begg, ot Pukekohe, attended her. She had a double fracture of the right thigh and grave internal injuries and her death occurred at the Auckland Hbspital. The crossing has been the scene of at least two .other accidents, one of which ended fatally. The Waiuku train was delayed for about 40 minutes. , Mrs. Marshall was Mr. Marshall’s second wife. They had been married for about two years.