MOTOR LORRY CRASHES INTO DRAIN AT RANGIOTU.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4412, 1 November 1934, Page 3

MOTOR LORRY CRASHES INTO DRAIN AT RANGIOTU.

* DRIVER SUSTAINS HEAD INJURIES. A new motor lorry being driven from Wellington to Palmerston N. for demonstration in the Manawatu A. and P. Association Show came to grief at Rangiotu shortly after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, when it left the road just past the Post Office and crashed down a twenty foot bank into a drain. The driver sustainedfairly severe bead injuries but was able to extricate himself from the cab and crawl up the bank where he received first aid fiom members of the Foxton-Palmerston N. train gang, the train being in the vicinity at the time of the mishap. According to the driver the steer-ing-gear failed and he was unable to control the lorry which was proceeding down the gradient in front of the Post Office at the time. It swerved off the road and down the steep incline before anything could he done to bring it to a standstill. It was fortunate that the train was in the vicinity at the time. Tu fact) both lorry and train were proceeding' side bv side- at the time, the train slowing down to stop at Rangiotu. The emergency equipment in the guard’s van which was halted right alongside the scene of the accident, was broken out and the injured man attended to without delay. The ambulance arrived shortly after and he was conveyed to the Palmerston N. Hospital. The lorry was extensively damaged, the radiator being forced back into the engine and the body badly strained. A break-down lorry was commissioned to haul the vehicle up on to the road but so firmly was the wrecked truck embedded in the drain that several hours elapsed before this was accomplished.