Crashes Into Gorge

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13925, 29 June 1918, Page 4

Crashes Into Gorge

SHANNON RESIDENT DROWNED,

A motor car accident occurred in the Manawatu Gorge on Thursday evening at about 10 o 'clock, in which Mr Ambrose Tremewan, a well-known Shannon resident, lost his life. The motor party consisted of three—Messrs Tremewan, \V. McKegg. and John King, a returned soldier. The party intended to make Woodville for the night and go on to Hastings for the races next day. The night was fairly clear in the Gorge, but at one spot the .car encountered boulders and was pulled up and the obstacles removed. About 1% miles from the Upper Gorge Bridge, at a very narrow- portion of the road, the travellers encountered another piece of rock. The car was nearly pulled up, but one of the occupants said: “Let her straddle it,’’ thinking that the car would clear it. The next moment the car waa lifted from the back, seemingly the rock got under the back axle, and the driver (McKegg) momentarily lost his grip of the steering wheel. King was thrown out and McKegg recovered himself sufficiently to keep the car broadside on, but two wheels w-ent over the edge and the car toppled and crashed twenty foot into the flooded rivet below-.

McKegg got clear half-way down, but Tremewan was carried into the river with the car. McKegg called to Tremewan: “Where art 1 you. Trem?” and says that he heard groaning and calling out. King also heard cries from the river and thought he saw- Tremewan floating down stream and calling for help. The cries at last faded away in the roar of the river and no more was heard of Tremewan. Tremewan was probably injured and was in ordinary times unable to swim. A search was made for the body throughout yesterday. but without results. One theory is advanced that King and McKegg might have been mistaken and that they saw a cushion floating down the river and that Tremewan is still in the car, which is closed in. The ear has, however, not yet been located. Mr Tremewan was 45 years of age and a son of Mr T. Tremewan, of Tawa Flat, and a brother of Mr W. Tremewan, of Terraco End. He was a married mah w-ith five children.