LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 18 September 1934, Page 9

LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

THREE PEOPLE INJURED OAR STRUCK NEAR POKENO WOMAN’S CONDITION SERIOUS, ,3y Telegraph —Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Sept. 17. Three people were injured, one of them seriously, when the motor car in which they were riding was struck by the Auckland-Rotorua express at the Cameron Street level crossing, about a quarter of a mile south of the Pokeno railway station. Two women who had alighted from the car a minute or two earlier saw the accident. The injured are;

Mrs Sarah Charlton, aged 64, widow, of Taupaki, near Kumeu, head injuries, condition serious.

Richard Knight Keith, aged 41, farmar of Mangatawhiri, driver of the car; head injuries, not serious. Fergus Keith, aged 13, only child of Mr R. K- Keith; fractured right arm and shock, condition not serious, The three occupants of the car, a closed model recently acquired by Mr Keith, were thrown out, Mrs Charlton landing on the far side of the cattle stop and so near the track that she narrowly escaped being run over by the express. Mr Keith and his son, who was with him in the front seat, were hurled down a bank and finished a little ahead of the motor car, which did not overturn.

The injured people were attended by a doctor and two medical students who were on the train. Mrs Charlton and Mr Keith were later carried to the guard’s van and conveyed to Frankton, being admitted to the Waikato Hospital. Fergus Keith, who was discharged from the Auckland Hospital only last week after being a patient there for five months, was taken back to the institution in an ambulance.

The crossing at which the accident occurred, being on a blind road leading to the homes of the three serttlers, is little used. The car was almost across when the train struck it a glancing blow on the left side near the back, throwing it down the bank beside the track.