LORRY SMASHED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 2 November 1925, Page 11

LORRY SMASHED.

FALLS OVER. CLIFF. ACCIDENT AT OEO BEACH. A five-ton Kissell dump truck, which was being used to cart metal from the Geo beach, was on Saturday accidentally started up whilst in reverse gear, and in spite of the efforts of the driver, who ran beside the machine and tried to divert its course, it toppled over a cliff about 150 feet in height and was smashed to pieces on the rocks below. Mr. C. Blake, of Hawera, in whose charge the lorry was, had just got a load of metal aboard, and had been moving away when the engine stalled> In getting out of the machine he had apparently accidentally knocked the gear lever into reverse, and consequently when he used the impulse starter the lorry commenced to pursue a backward course down an incline to the 'edge of the cliffs. He ran beside the lorry, which soon gathered considerable pace, and, although he was knocked down he succeeded in swinging it around. The manoeuvre, however, was made too near the cliff edge, and, the ground giving way, the; lorry toppled over sideways and vanished. It was discovered a hopeless wreck on the beach below. Fortunately, no one was in the lorry, and Mr. Blake was knocked over some little distance from the cliff-edge.