LORRY DRIVER’S DEATH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 25, 29 December 1925, Page 7

LORRY DRIVER’S DEATH.

VEHICLE LEAVES THE ROAD.

A FALL OF TWENTY FEET,

Further details are to hand concern-" ing the tragic motor fatality which occurred on the Elevation, near Picton, between 11 o’clock and noon on Tuesday last, a motor lorry plunging into a gully and killing the owner r driver, Mr’ Frederick Langiot Donkin. It was not until about 5.30 in the afternoon. that tho wrecked lorry was noticed, although throughout the afternoon there j bad been a big volume of traffic passing j the spot where the machine made its: crash from tho road. The unfortunate victim of the mishap was a soldier-settler at Erina, and had set out in the morning in a light delivery motor truck for Picton, where, it is understood, he had a launch and intended to spend a day or so fishing. Apparently he had trouble with the engine of the lorry, for he was last seen at about 11 o’clock on the Elevation by Mr J- A. Breayley, of Picton, who lent ‘deceased assistance up a portion of the hill. It must have been very shortly after Mr Breayley left the scene that tho accident happened. As far as can be ascertained, Mr Donkin was driving up a steep pinch on the Blenheim'side of the summit when the engine again failed or stalled. The lorry, possibly, commenced to run backward and, the brakes failing to hold, the driver gave the wheel a twist with the object of directing the machine into tho hillside. He must have turned in just the opposite direction, however, and tho lorry, running off the road, fell in a straight' descent about 20ft into a rough gully. The deceased was pinned beneath the car with a wheel on his chest and crushed against a big boulder. Death was probably instantaneous. or followed very shirtly after tho crash. Over five hours later Messrs A. S. Bartlet and W. Cragg, of Picton, were passing along the Elevation road when they perceived tho battered vehicle in the gully. When their investigations revealed the body of a man beneath the wreckage, they immediately communicated with the Picton police. Constable D. Crowe accompanied by Constable Audley, hastened to the scene. Thesr found that life was extinct, and the deceased appeared to have been dead several hours. The body was'removed to Picton.