PLUNGE INTO RIVER ?

Grey River Argus, 14 August 1944, Page 4

PLUNGE INTO RIVER ?

SEARCH FOR WANGANUI MOTORIST P.A. WANGANUI, Aug. 13. A motor-car with a driver, believed to be Mr Robert W. Orton, a well-known farmer of Wanganui, plunged into the Wanganui River about seven miles from the city on Saturday afternoon. So far neither the vehicle nor its occupant have been located in water at least twenty feet deep at low tide. It is not known at what time the accident occurred. Mr Orton was last seen at the Makirikiri store shortly after one o’clock on Saturday afternoon, the storekeeper seeing the car drive away along the road in the direction of Orton’s farm, which is about a mile and a-half away. When Orton was missed a search was begun and indications were found that a vehicle had left the road and plunged over a steep bank through undergrowth to the river. A Harbour Board launch and one of the river steamers aided in the police search to-day, but it is thought that a diver will be necessary before the driver can be located.