DUNEDIN ACCIDENT

Grey River Argus, 11 January 1944, Page 5

DUNEDIN ACCIDENT

MOTOR LORRY’S WILD CAREER Six Airmen in Hospital AMAZING ESCAPE FROM DEATH. P.A DUNEDIN, Jan. 10. Thirteen members of the ’ Royal N.Z. Air Force who are stationed at Taieri Aerodrome were involved in one of the most sensational motor accidents in this city for many years at 5.30 o’clock this evening. They were occupants of an Air Force motor van which was proceeding from the aerodrome to an evening sports meeting at the Cale'donian grounds. The van hurtled down over the ramp from Lower Canongate for a distance of forty feet and came to rest, badly battered. at the foot of the steps near Speight’s branch of the N.Z. Breweries Ltd. All of the occupants were removed to the Dunedin Public Hospital, six of them remaining in the. institution with more or less serious injuries, and the other seven being discharged two hours later. The following is a list of the injured men in hospital:— A.C.2 S. Cavanagh, fractured left leg. L.A.C. Leslie Keeler;, s\uspedted fracture of the spine. Corporal H. Henning, head injuries. Corporal Ernest Smart, injury to the riMit hip. Pilot Officer L. D. J. Whatman, slight head, injuries. A.C.2 H. D. Riley, suspected fractured rib. All of the men had an amazing escape from death or very serious injury, and one of the extraordinary features of the accident was that the somersaulting van. in its Right* passed over the head of a man who was walking up the steps to Canongate. The van ; driven by Leslie Keeler, was proceeding down Rattray Street when, it is surmised, some mechanical trouble developed. In normal circumstances, it Would have continued straight down Rattray Street, but the driver, apparently, considered he would have a better opportunity of regaining control by proceeding up Lower Canongate which leads up from the right hand side of Rattray Street. This thoroughfare has a steep grade where it joins Rattray Street* About 30 yards from Rattray St. there is a sharp bend, and it Is here that the van plunged through the railings of the ramp, and hurtled down over the Canongate steps, finishing end up just off the footpath below. It grazed a telegraph pole, smashing a road sign on the pole. It also carried with it a large portion of the railing of the ramp, a big piece of which was embedded in the radiator of the van. From where the vehicle left the roadway to the place where it came to rest was a distance of 40 feet, and according to an eye-witness, it somersaulted twice in its flight. One of the occupants of the van said that the driver made a nlucky attempt to save his fellow airmen when he .made 'the alarrrimg discovery that somethinp- had gone wrong mechanically with the vehicle.