BLED TO DEATH

Northern Advocate, 7 May 1930, Page 3

BLED TO DEATH

THIGH PIERCED BY GLASS. (Special to "Northern Advocate.”) AUCKLAND, Tuesday, A motorist, Mr Julian William Roope, of Stanley Bay, bled to death in a few minutes last evening. His car left the road at the boathouse corner, Pultoi, anil fell irift. into the Pnhoi River, turning a double somersault and landing on its wheels in the soft mud. Mr Roope’s loft, thigh was pierced by a. piece of glass from the windscreen. Ho clambered out of the car, but a few minutes later, when rescuers reached him, he collapsed in the mud and died.

The fatality occurred at about A,'lo o’clock, just as dusk was falling. There is a sharp corner near the boathouse, where the bridge crosses the Puhoi River. An overhead bridge for the conveyance of .shingle has also been erected across the road, and it is thought that' Mr Roope mistook this for a block in the road. He may also have mistaken the lights of the boathouse, which is 40ft away, for the bridge approach, as ho was not familiar with the road.

Mr Eoope, who is s;iid to have been employed by the Australia and New Zealand Flax Growing Company, -was travelling North.' The accident was observed by'Mr L. Daveney, who has charge of the Public* Works Department’s houseboat. He stated this morning that he saw the car fall and immediately went to the motorist’s assistance. Mr Daveney and several men from ’the houseboat reached Mr Eoope a few minutes after the accident. The saw that he was bleeding profusely from a deep wound in the left thigh. There were no other cuts or bruises on the body, Mr Eoope had left the ear, but just as they reached him he staggered and foil dead in the mud. Dr. G. H. Osborne, of Warkworth, was called but could not do anything. Mr Eoope lived at 33 Summer Street, Stanley Bay.