SERIOUS COLLISION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 41, 17 January 1938, Page 6

SERIOUS COLLISION.

ACCIDENT NEAR RANGIOTU. SIX PERSONS INJURED. Six persons were injured, three of them seriously, in a triple motor collision which occurred about midnight on the main road half a mile on the Foxton side of Itangiotu. Three cars were badly damaged, one of them being completely wrecked, and two ambulances were required to bring the victims to hospital in Palmerston North. They are MR C. S. PLANK, District Telegraph Engineer, Palmerston North, seriously injured. MR L. THOMPSON, Rangiotu, seriously injured. MRS L. THOMPSON, Rangiotu, facial injuries. MRS W. HILL, mother of Mrs Thompson, cuts and bruises. MR G. MCDONALD, 50 Johnston Street, Foxton, seriously injured. MISS GLADYS WINIFRED DAVIS, aged 17, of Palmerston North, deep cuts on the face and left leg: Driven by Mr Thompson, who had with him as passengers Mrs Thompson and Mrs Hill, a small car had almost reached the entrance to Mr W. Hill's farm when an engine fault developed, and it stopped on tfie north side of the road facing Palmerston North. Soon afterwards Mr McDonald arrived in his car en route to Foxton and, observing that the other vehicle was in trouble, stopped to assist. With the object of bringing Ins lights to hear on the engine of the disabled ear, he stopped two yards away, directly in front of the other car. This was on a straight section of road in bright moonlight, and the visibility was good. VEHICLE CRUSHED. Next Messrs M. H. Oram and C. S. Plank, who were returning from Wellington, arrived and stopped to give assistance. Mr Plank was examining the ignition of the disabled car with Mr Thomspon, while Messrs Oram and McDonald were standing by, with the ladies close at hand, when a heavy car - , driven by Mr E. N. Davis, of Burns Avenue, Palmerston North, whose only passenger was his daughter, came from the direction of Foxton and crashed into the hack of the small car' which had had engine trouble. This was crushed between two vehicles and completely wrecked, the body lieing lifted off the frame of the chassis as it was sandwiched. Mr McDonald’s car, immediately in front, and into which Mr Thompson’s car cannoned, had the radiator pushed hack on to the engine, and, with the hand-brake still on, was shot 34 feet away into the grass from the car which had caused the impact. This latter vehicle had its engine and chassis damaged, with the radiator pushed in. Messrs Plank and Thompson received almost the full force of the impact, and were hurled to the roadway in n shower of broken glass, while Mr McDonald also received a heavy blow from the car. Mrs Hill and Mrs Thompson, standing nearby, received their injuries from flying glass and humps from the moving cars. Looking round when Mr Davis’s car was almost on them, Mr Oram had a miraculous escape from serious injury. He seized Mr Plank in an unsuccessful attempt to pull him clear, but himself finished it the ditch on the other side of the road.

Traffic was temporarily held up by the damaged cars and the sufferers were made as comfortable as possible, while messages were dispatched by Miss King, postmistress at Rangiotu, for medical and police assistance. A doctor and two ambulances were quickly on the scene, and five of the injured persons were taken to the Public Hospital, while Mr Plank was conveyed to a private hospital. Both Messrs Plank and Thompson received painful facial, injuries, and it was feared that the latter was injured internally, but they remained conscious. It is understood that Mr Plank suffered fractures of the nose and upper jaw. It is also understood that the driver of the car which ran into the back of the other had his vision partly obscured by the lights of an oncoming car a quarter of a mile away.