MOTORING ACCIDENTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1001, 28 April 1924, Page 4

MOTORING ACCIDENTS.

LABOUR MEN INJURED. (Per Press Association.) ASHBURTON, April 27. A motor accident occured live miles south of Ashburton to-night, in which the victims were Messrs Henry E. Holland (Leader of the New Zealand Parliamentary Labour Party), P. Fraser (secretary), T. Brindle ident of the New Zealand Labour Party). D. W. Coleman (president of the Gisborne Labour Representatives committee), and Clark, of Dunedin, thf taxi-driver. The accident was not of s serious nature, though all the occupants arrived with minor cuts and bruises and suffered shock. The Labour men had been touring the southern -districts, addressing meetings in connection with the railway strike. They left Dunedin at 7.45 in the morning and held meetings at Palmerston South, Oamaru and Timaru. Up to that time they had two punctures to the same tyre. These were mended at Timaru and the same tyre got a puncture for the third time nearing Ashburton, while the car was trav> elling at 35 miles an hour, as the part) was anxious to reach Ashburton to ad dress a meeting, and then to proceed t< Lyttelton to catch the ferry.

When the tyre burst, the car swerv et at right angles, and made for a smul bank, then turned on its side. The caj was a glassed-in sedan, and many cutt were received from the flying glass. Mr Holland, in a statement, said no blame was attachable to the. driver as at his request he had been hurrying to gain time. Mr Holland received cuts and bruises about the head, and when he arrived at Ashburton was liberally plastered with blood, mostly from Mr Briijdle, who fared worst of all and took to his bed suffering severely from shpek. Mr Eraser had a severe bruise on the forehead, and Mr Coleman was alco bruised and cut. ACCIDENT TO INSPECTOR. KNOCKED DOWN BY CAR. A series of motor accidents occurred on the Hutt Road on Saturday. As a result of one at Kaiwarra, the Wellington City Council's senior traffic inspector (Air Cross) now lies in the hospitalin a critical condition. It was in attempting to check the speed of a car that Mr Cross met with a seriups accident. He was put in the road when a car, travelling at a considerable rate of speed, flashed out to the right of the line of cars, and the driver, who is said to have taken no notict of the upraised hand, continued on his course, knocking Air Cross with great violence to the ground. The speed of the offending car is said to have been excessive, and after the accident the car proceeded on its way to the city. It stopped, however, about 100 yards further on, when two passengers alighted tq render assistance, but when they went back to find the driver of the car, he had disappeared. Mr Cross was examined by a doctor, and it was found that both legs were broken, and he was sufloring form slight concussion of the brain. The doctor could do little more than order the attendance of the ambulance from the city, and in it the sufferer was removed to the Wellington Hospital, where it was found that there was a compound fracture of one of the legs, and a simple fracture of the other, together with slight concussion of the brain, as the result of hurt to his head. •At a late hour last night he was re ported to be in a critical condition. H< is a married man, 44 years of age, am has been in the employ of the counc: for some time, and was previously i; charge of the tramways at Gisborne.