Sensational Tram Smash

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 209, 21 August 1926, Page 4

Sensational Tram Smash

MOTORMAN FAINTS ANO FALLS OFF. VERT FEW CASUALTIES. Auckland, Aug. 20. The falling off of the motorman and the subsequent loss of control of a tramcar travelling down Symonds street resulted in a sensational accident shortly before five o’clock tonight. With a crash of splintering glass, the runaway tram jumped the points at the intersection of Wellesley street smd Symonds street, hurled itself diagonally across the road, carrying away a tree at the edge of the piavement, and finishing its mad career a total wreck by smashing through the fence of a house two doors from the corner.

Luckily the injured list was a light one, and for this the fact that the car was practically empty and that traffic at the time was exceptionally light must be held mainly responsible.

The motorman, J. Philpotts, had fainted and fallen off. He was picked up some distance up the road by a motorist and conveyed to the hospital. Here it was found he had sustained a fracture to the base of the skull. His condition was reported to be somewhat serious.

Tho crash itself was attended by very few casualties. The force of the impact hurled the conductor, who was standing on the back platform, through the car and he received a cut over the eye and minor injuries to his hands and legs. The only passengers were a boy and a man. The boy received slight cuts and the man escaped uninjured. The circumstances which led up to the, falling off of Motorman Philpotts are not definite. For the past few days he had not been in the best of health, and it is believed he fainted shortly after a lady passenger had alighted from the car ut City road. The car is one of a fairly old type and was not fitted with the modern safety apparatus that brings a car to a standstill whenever the motarman’s hand is removed from the controls. After the accident the scene was one to beggar description. There were deep scars in the concrete where the car had left the rails, and a tree stump about two feet in height was another mark of its terrific final rush. Still further evidence lay in the state of the car itself and the presence of a tree trunk hurled some 20 or 30 yards from the splintered stump.