SMASH AT CROSSING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 199, 21 July 1930, Page 7

SMASH AT CROSSING.

TRAIN STRIKES LORRY. DRIVER’S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE. Miraculously escaping injury, Cecil Thomas, of Ruahine Street, Palmerston North, crawled from the wreckage of a lorry literally, without a scratch, after the vehicle had been struck broadside on by a fast travelling train at the Fitzroy'Street crossing, Terrace End, at 9.45 o’clock this morning. Mr Thomas had been loading coal at the Terrace End siding, several chains away, and he was travelling along the gravelled side of Main Street, parallel with the railway line, towards Palmerston North. Crossing the line at Fitzrov Street, he apparently did not see the approaching train, which was coming from 'Wanganui, and comprised goods and passenger coaches._ The lorry was struck in the centre, just be- : hind the cab, and was carried a chain along the line before it was thrown on . to the roadside, upside down. The cab i was reduced to matchwood, glass was strewn about, and other parte of the :v;i vehicle were twisted and smashed. Broken sacks of coal were thrown in •;<; all directions, while one sack was car■V ried on the cow-catcher of the train and deposited where it pulled up about 200 yards away. ■K Mr P. E. Thomas, father of the * driver, was in charge of another lorry t immediately behind. He stated that «. his son was travelling in the 6ame Si direction as the train, and apparently did not see it. He was familiar with the crossing, which was quite open. I; “The first I saw of the boy was when | he crawled from beneath the wreckage, y without having sustained a scratch,” said' Mr Thomas. It was stated that the train did not stop at Terrace End, and was travelling at a fast speed.