Banana Truck Crashes Down Hill At Otoko

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23425, 2 December 1950, Page 8

Banana Truck Crashes Down Hill At Otoko

Bananas were strewn over the Hillside at Otoko at 9 a.m. yesterday when a Railway Road Service *truck bringing part of a Christmas consignment to Gisborne left the road, turned over twice in its 50ft. drop and landed on its wheels in a paddock below.

The driver, Mr. B. Newlh, Opotiki, extricated himself from the damaged vehicle at the bottom of the hill, and suffered only minor abrasions. The vehicle was one of four truckloads of bananas and pineapples being transported from the Taneatua railhead to Gisborne. As he was descending the Otoko Ilill, Mr. Newth experienced trouble with his brakes and was unable to negotiate a bend on the hill road. There were 160 to 170 cases of bananas in the load, and about 100 cases had to be written off as unsalvageable. A party of 10 from Railway Road Services in Gisborne went to the scene of the accident. Throughout the day they worked to recover bananas from the hillside and carry them up to road level. With the aid of one of the service’s cream lorries on the run. the damaged vehicle was towed back to the road and was able to continue the trip to Gisborne under its own power. Mr. Newth returned to Opotiki by service car yesterday morning. Because of the loss of the bananas, it was necessary to make a reallocation to retailers. However, retailers have had good supplies recently and it was not expected that they would be greatly inconvenienced for the Christmas trade by the accident. It- is understood, also, that the loss will be replaced from a shipment due between Christmas and New Year.