MOTORING ACCIDENTS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3442, 12 March 1932, Page 5

MOTORING ACCIDENTS

MAN SERIOUSLY INJURED. THROWN OFF BACK OF LORRY. A serious accident occurred on the Te Kuiti-Hangatiki Road at 8 o’clock last night, when a lorry driven by Mr Frederick Ronald Stokes, employed by Mr. Hjrde, the proprietor of the new limeworks at Hangatiki, locked its wheels and lurched, throwing some passengers at the back on to the metalled road. Seated on the front seat with the driver were Mrs. Tims and her young daughter, and on the back of the lorry, sitting on a box with their backs to the cab were Mr. and Mrs. Gray, Miss Mclnteer and Mr. H. Saussey. When rounding the first sharp bend after leaving Hangatiki junction the steering gear locked and the lorry striking some lodse clay filling which had been heaped there lurched' suddenly, throwing the occupants on the back of the truck on to the metal road. Mr. Grey received serious injuries and was unconscious when picked up. The injured were taken on to Te Kuiti where they were attended to by Dr. de Castro. Mr. Gray was sent to the hospital, where his condition is serious.

Mrs. Gray sustained an . injured shoulder, and Mr. Saussey a cut on the head. The other occupants received a few minor bruises.

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE

CAR GOES OVER CLIFF.

A motor truck driven by Mr. Colin Cameron Grant, an employee of the Public'Works Department, who was accompanied by Messrs. Osborne Coleman and Ben McDowell, also employees of the Public Works Department, had a miraculous escape yesterday morning when passing a lorry driven by Mr. J. O'Hagan on a bend on the Rangitoto Road a mile from Te Kuiti, at a point on a sharp bend overlooking the Viaduct where the two trucks met. To avoid a head-on collision Cameron pulled off the metal into some loose fern and was suddenly precipitated over the steep bank, resting on a tree some fifty feet down a precipice face of 200 feet overlooking the river below. Not one of the inmates of the car received the slightest injury, which, under the circumstances, seemed miraculous.