TRAGEDY AFTER WEDDING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 218, 13 August 1940, Page 6

TRAGEDY AFTER WEDDING.

BRIDE AND BRIDESMAID KILLED motor-carLaccident. Per Press Association. NELSON, Aug. 13. A bride of only three hours and a bridesmaid at a Nelson wedding yesterday afternoon were both killed in a motor accident on a hack road at Stoke at about 7 o’clock last evening, when the bridal party were travelling to the Nelson-Wellington.ferryTo farewell the soldier husband, wlio is a- member ot the Third Echelon and who was to have returned to camp by boat. The bridegroom and best man, who are both members of the echelon, were admitted to hospital, both in a moderately serious condition. The victims were : KILLED. MISS FRIDL WEYERGANG, aged 26, Waimea Street, Nelson; killed instantaneously from head injuries. MRS BARBARA CHILDS, of Nelson; died in hospital from head. injuries. INJURED.

PRIVATE JAMES ANTHONY CHILDS, aged 27, of Champion Road, Richmond; severe concussion, shock, extensive scalp wounds, and fractured lcgj condition moderately serious.

PRIVATE JAMES JOSEPH DEREK THOMPSON, aged 24, of Blenheim and formerly of Nelson; shock, severe concussion, fractured upper jaw, crushed wound in the chest and lacerated wounds to the face; condition moderately serious.

Mr and Mrs Childs were married at the Nelson Cathedral at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the bride being Miss Barbara Gould. Driven by Mr Thompson, the bridal party had been to Richmond to Mr Childs’s home.'On the way back to Nelson to catch the boat they travelled down a back road from Stoke. On a corner known as Russell’s Corner, where the back road joins Quarantene Road, the car went straight on instead of taking the corner, jumped a Hitch about 2ft in. depth, and struck a tree on the other side.

The front of the car—a late model sedan—was stove in. and the windscreen and steering coliimn were smashed. People living in the vicinity heard the smash and quickly went to give assistance.

It was found that Miss Weyergang was dead and the other three were taken to hospital, where Mrs Childs died half an hour after admission. Airs Childs was a daughter of Air A. Gould, the chairman of the Nelson Harbour Board.