ALMOST OVER A CLIFF.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 143, 21 May 1925, Page 11

ALMOST OVER A CLIFF.

CLOSE CALL FOR MOTORIST. GREAT PRESENCE OF MIND. CHRISTCHURCH, May 16. A sensational accident occurred yesterday afternoon on Clifton Hill, Sumner, as a result of which a tlireeseater motor-car now rests within a few feet of the highest point of the cliff, overlooking the Sumner causeway. Shortly after three o’clock Mr J. Reid, with his wife and son, stopped on Clifton Hill at the corner just Delow the residence built by Professor Scott. After Mrs Reid had alighted Mr Reid attempted to back his car into the corner with the idea of turning. His foot brake carried away, and the car crashed through a heavy post nnd rail fence, Mr Reid, junr., being thrown on to the road. The car with its driver then slid down a flowercovered bank, almost perpendicular, for about 12ft., and made a direct line for the top of the cliff. Mr Reid, who had been thrown to the bottom of the car, rose in time to see the fate awaiting him, and with great presence of mind slewed the car in its downhill rush sufficiently to steer it into some rnacroccarpa trees. With its wheels in a watercourse the car now rests against these trees within a very short distance of a sheer drop of quite 200 ft. Altogether the car fell a distance of nearly 50ft., and, strangely enough, neither overturned nor received any apparent serious damage. Quite apart from the almost miraculous escape of the owner is the narrow escape of the traffic below the cliff, for at that hour of the afternoon there was a continuous stream of motor-cars going both ways under the scene of the accident, and a falling car at that spot might have proved a serious menace to the traffic on the road.