Motor Tragedy.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7543, 16 May 1903, Page 7

Motor Tragedy.

COUNT ZBOHOWSKI KILLED AT NICE. TWO VICTIMS. The first race of the auto-car week ended in a terrible -disaster. Count Zborowski, while driving a 60-h.p. Mercedes car to-day dashud into a wall of rock, and was instantly killed. Baron do Pallanye, who was with him on the car as professional chauffeur, was so terribly injured that he died later in the day. Tho Count, who drove the fifth car that started, appeared to be suffering from nervousness, and to have had some premonition of impending evil. The previous ni«rht at the Automobile Club he remarked that someone would break his nock during the race. Tiie Grand Corniche road from Nice to La Turbie, over which the race took place, abounds in sharp bends and steep grades, and presents many dangers for racin- I chauffeurs. At the Jirst turn the road has a right-angle bend leading up on a hill flanked by steep rug<° . eel rocks on one side, and by a g?n----t c descent to a cottage, garden on the other. It was hero that tho disaster occurred. As the Count approached this dangerous spot it appeared to onlookers as if he made no attempt to get round the bend. Another second, and with an awful crash the ton weight, travelling sixty miles an hour, dashed into the rock. The two occupants were flung against the cliff. Death was instantaneous in the case of the Count, and his body was removed to tho little chapel which stands near ]jy. Baron Pallanye was still alive, and was taken on an ambulance to the hospital, where he died not long after. The road where the accident happened was strewn with iragments of the shattered Mercedes. Further racing was, of course, immediately abandoned. Not more than a yard from the point where Count Zborowski struck the rock is a marble tablet recording another fatal accident to a motorist. It is inscribed, " A Notre Camarad Wilholm Bauer 30 Mars, 1900, A.C.N." Bauer, who was a professional motorist, was killed under circumstances similar to those under which the Count and the Baron met their death. Earlier in the races there had been an alarming mishap. The machines were started singly two minutes apart. Three Mercedes went off in fine stylo, piloted by Messrs Werner, Degrais, and Hieroimnus. Then came a fourth Mercedes, driven by Baron Gasteaux. He had got up full pace on the flat to approach the first turn, when the machine skidded, and there was a shout from the spectators. By a miracle the car scraped by tho rock, but only to meet with disaster. While charging a rocky bank just before reaching the winning point the machine broke down, and Baron Gasteaux was flung into the air, turning three times before he fell on the road. lie lay near his chauffeur motionless, but on being assisted to rise neither were found to be seriously hurt. Count Zborowsvi, who was a man of charming personality, was an American of Polish descent. lie owned considerable property in New York,, including tho Broadway The- | atrc. lie was about forty years of i age, and lived at Putney. In New York he gained a reputation as an expert polo player. The Countess Zborowski was Miss "Elizabeth Carey, a cousin of Mr William Astor. She was formerly married to Baron do Stours, the Dutch Minister at Paris, but was divorced from j him years ago. The Nice-La Turbie course was not strange to Count Zborowski. for last year ho won tho touring section of the race, covering 9.1. miles in 2nmins. 21socs.