MOTOR CAR ACCIDENT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 October 1924, Page 4

MOTOR CAR ACCIDENT.

MISHAP AT KAPONGA. At Kaponga yesterday afternoon, whilst endeavouring to turn to the right from the Manaija. on to j tiie Eltham Road, a Hawera lady driving a two-seater car met with a mishap resulting in the machine coming into violent collision on . the top corner of the intersection with twin poles of reinforced concrete used for carrying the electric light and power lines. The lady’s husband was seated with her in the car. Though neither sustained injury, the lady suffered considerably from the shock. The force of the impact moved the poles from their upright alignment and fractured the concrete, which in one pole was completely severed, leaving the twisted steelwork bare for a few inches above the ground. Considering this, the fore part of the car had a remarkable escape from being completely wrecked, but though- one side of the wedge-sliaped radiator was badly buckled and the engine stays and one of the fore springs were damaged considerably, no further injury was evident, and the lamp glasses and windscreen remained intact. One of the protruding springs, however, became jammed between the poles, and some difficulty was experienced in freeing the car, which had then to he towed from the spot, the occupants being conveyed to Hawera by another car driven by Cr. A. Guy, of Kaponga, who had gone to their assistance at the time of the accident. An eye-witness states that approaching the corner the car was travelling slowly when another oar, without warning, crossed the former’s path at right angles. Intending evidently to further slacken speed, the lady, it is said, mistook the accelerator for the foot brake, and as it turned, the car leapt- forward, the sudden swift increase in speed giving the driver insufficient time to negotiate the corner.