MOTORING FATALITY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4810, 18 February 1936, Page 5

MOTORING FATALITY

CAR SOMERSAULTS NEAR TE AWAMUTU.

SWERVE TO AVOID LORRY.

A few minutes after six o'clock last Saturday evening a motoring accident occurred, that was attended with fatal results, a man named James Peacock being so terribly injured that death must have been instantaneous, while three other men were later despatched to Waikato Hospital for treatment, a fifth man was thought to be only slightly injured and was allowed to return home, while the sixth had what seems like a remarkable escape from injuryj says .the Waipa Post. The men' concerned were:—Killed: James Peacock, aged about 55, carpenter, married, extensive head and chest injuries. Injured: Edward Kingsford, labourer, aged 26, severe concussion; Claude Hunt, foreman carpenter, aged 41, married, fractured ribs and bruises; William Christie, P.W.D. employee, aged 40, internal injuries and broken arm; Edward Connell, labourer, aged 22, cracked ribs, knee injury; Lenton Neale, labourer, age 27, scratches and bruises.

All the men were engaged on the erection of two new villas at the Tokanui Mental Hospital, the contractor for which is Mr. Sorensen, of Papatoetoe. The car, a Dodge tourer, 1924 model, belonged to William Lindsay, lorry driver on the job, and it was driven by Kingsford.

The men had been in Te Awamutu during the afternoon, and all met at the Te Awamutu Hotel, and got into the car in front of Mr. H. Renton's shop at about five minutes past six, to return to their bunk-house at Tokanui, travelling via Kihikihi. Just what happened has not been completely demonstrated yet, but it appears that as the car was negotiating the bend right at the borough boundary (opposite Mr. F. D. McGovern's new homestead) the driver saw a lorry approaching, and to avoid it he had to swing very abruptly to the left, with the result that the car plunged off the roadway and somersaulted, coming to rest on its side, but with the hood crumpled in the somersault. All the men were flung out of the vehicle.