MAN’S DEATH

Hokitika Guardian, 21 November 1939, Page 6

MAN’S DEATH

LORRY AND TRAIN SMASH. (Per Press Association—Copyright) . HAMILTON. November 21. Terrible injuries from Avhich lie died about tAvo hours after admission to the hospital, were received by the driver of a cream lorry when the Arehicle Avas involved in a collision Avith a goods train on Piako crossing, near Morrinsville, this morning. The lorry Avas lifted bodily on to the front of. the engine and carried for 50 yards, before being dashed to pieces on the side of the track. The driver Avas thrown out of the cab. The victim Avas Samuel Thompson, 51, married, of Waihoit, a lorry driver employed by F. J. Smethurst, contractor of Waihou.

When the accident occurred, Thompson was travelling to the dairy factory at Morrinsville t with a load of cream. A passenger train had just passed over the crossing, and was being followed by a cattle train, when the, lorry approached the line. The engine caught the vehicle, on its side," and

carried it over the cattle stop, and in the process, the driver was thrown out of the cab. According to the police there were hardly two pieces of wood from tho damaged lorry, measuring more than two feet in length, while the chassis was a tangled heap.