THREE LIVES LOST

Grey River Argus, 6 May 1933, Page 4

THREE LIVES LOST

CAR IN RIVER Victims Imprisoned (Per Press Association). INVERCARGILL, May 5. It is feared that three lives have been lost as the result of a motor ear crashing over a bridge into the Makarewa River, near Wallacetown, at about 10.30 to-night. At midnight rile three persons were imprisoned in the ear, which is in 10 feet of water, and has its lights on. They are:— Mrs Frank Cameron Milne, the wife of the Manager of the Wright Bush Dairy Factory. Belle Milne, aged 10 years, her daughter. Jean Summerville, sister-in-law of Mrs Milne, whose parents reside at Mabel Bush. Desperate efforts were being made at a very late hour by a motor ambulance and police, with the assistance of a grappling iron, to extricate the car. Little hope is held of rescuing the survivors alive. The driver of the car, Milne, and also his eldest daughter, Lily, and G. Taylor, second assistant at the factory, escaped. It appears that when Milne was returning to Wright’s Bush from Inv ercargill with a full e ar at about 10.30 to-night, he failed to take the runners on the bridge over the Makarewa River. The car struck the left hand side of the bridge, and he tried to straighten up, but struck the other side, the supports of the bridge snap ping like match wood. The ear was precipitated on to the sloping bank of the river, and it held up momentarily, but it fell back into the water, Milne managed to jump out, as did his eldest daughter, Lily. The latter was carried down the river, but she managed to get out.