FATAL CROSSING SMASH

Manawatu Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 4670, 11 July 1936, Page 1

FATAL CROSSING SMASH

TRAGIC DEATH OP ELDERLY COUPLE. i:

The Bunnythorpe railway crossing lias claimed’two more victims, the express from New Plymouth on Thursday afternoon crashing into a ear driven by Mr Robert Currie, serir., of Bunnythorpe, who had his wife as passenger, and killing both.

Mr and Mrs Currie had been to Palmerston North, and it was while they were on tlieir * way home that the fatality occurred. The car was struck full in the centre on the left-hand side, where it became impaled on the cowcatcher. The impact reduced':,it to a mass of- -wreckage and with the two. occupants, still inside., it •was carried til]- tho train was brought to a standstill, a. distance ,of. from 150 to.2oo l yards. Mi's Currie was already dead when lifted from the ..remains of the car. The full force of the impact had been received, on the. side on which, she had been sitting and she must have been killed outright. Mr. Currie was. unconscious, but his injuries, were so severe that he passed, away about half an hour later.

Approaching the crossing the customary warning whistle was given by tho driver of the express train, which develops, a fast pace along the straight from Feilding, but> as there was a goods train on the loop at the Bunnythorpe station, adjacent to the-crossing, it is considered quite possible that Mr Currie had his “ attention directed in that .direction when about to cross, the .line. He was.no stranger to the crossing and knew the running dimes of the various trains.

■Both deceased were very, old and highly respected residents of Bunnythorpe, Mr Currie was 73 years-old, and Mi’s Currie 74 years.