CROSSING SMASH

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 236, 18 September 1934, Page 1

CROSSING SMASH

Three People injured

CAR ALMOST OVER LINE

By Telegraph—Press Association, AUCKLAND, September 17.

Three people were injured, one of them seriously, when the motorcar 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 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.

MR RICHARD KNIGHT KEITH, aged 41, a farmer, of Mangalawhiri, driver of the car; head

injuries, not serious. FERGUS KEITH, agod 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 Chariton landing on the far side of the cattlestop and so near to the track that she narrowly escaped being run over by tlie express. Mr Keith and his son, who was with him in the front seat, were hurled down a bank and finished n little ahead of the motor-car, which did not overturn.

The injured people were attended by a doctor and two ’edieal 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 by ambulance.

The crossing at which the accident occurred, being on a blind road leading to the homes of three settlers, 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.