Fatal Motor Car Accident.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2902, 17 January 1911, Page 5

Fatal Motor Car Accident.

AT WALLACETOWN RAILWAY CROSSING. DR FULLARTON AND AIISS MARTIN KILLED. THREE OTHERS INJURED. A distressing motor car accident occurred at the Wallacetown railway crosing on Wednesday morning. A c-tr driven by Dr" Fullarton ran into the LumsdenInvercargill train, was caught between two of tbe carriages, and carried to the cattle stops, where it was completely wrecked. The car was occupied by Dr Fullorton, Miss Martin (the housekeeper), Nurse Martin (the latter's sister from Timaru), and Nurse Martin's two nieces—Phyllis Howe (five years old), of Wellington, and Dora Martin (13 years), of Timaru.

The doctor and Dora Martin sustained fractured sculls and they died shortly afterwards. Phyllis Howe has a broken collarbone, Nurse Martin suffered mostly from ehock, and her sister (the housekeeper) sustained cuts and bruises on the head and arms. The latter three will recover.

Dr Fullarton had set out from Invercargill with the inteution of attending the Wairio races, where two of his horses had been entered. Two trains were due to cross at Wallacetowu Junctiou, which is five miles from Invercargill, and as the down train from Invercargill approached the motor car came down the road, the railway crossing having to be negotiated. The railway line in question is in a small cutting, and is hidden from view by a lengthy plantation of trees. Dr Fullarton, whose sight ia said to have been somewhat defective, evidently saw the up train standing in the station, but was apparently unaware that the down train was running in. It was not until he was a chaiu from the railway crossing that he heard the approaching train, and although he jarnbed the brakes on hard the motor car and the train reached the crossing at the same time. The motor car struck the side of the engine, and was carried into the adjacent cattle stop and smashed into fragments. The sufierers were promptly conveyed to Invercargill, but the girl died on the way down in the train and Dr Fullarton died a quarter of an hour after admission into the Invercargill Hospital, The speed of the car is said to have been from 25 to 30 miies an hour whilst the train was running at a rate of 12 to 15 miles an hour.