SERIOUS MOTOR ACCIDENT

Nelson Evening Mail, 18 May 1917, Page 3

SERIOUS MOTOR ACCIDENT

ON PJLEKAKARIKI HILL. Further particulars have come to hand concerning the serious motor car accident which took place on the Paekakariki Hill on Sunday last, says the Post. The car, it appears, was driven by a Mr M'Dermott, a farmer, of Bulls, who was coming down to Wellington, accompanied by his wife and daughter and a partv of friends. The car got out of control on the Paekakarika Hill, and dashed over the side of the road and down the steep bank below—a distance of about 300 feet. The miraculous part of the whole affair was that all on the car were not killed outright. As it was ,Mrs M'Dermott sustained a broken nose, and is suffering from a severe shock to her nervous system. She was taken to the Thorndon Private Hospital, and was reported this morning to be progressing "favourably. Mrs Middlemiss was also badly shaken and bruised, and went down to the Thorndon Private Hospital for treatment to-day. "The cause of the accident," said Mr M'Dermott to a Post reporter to-day, "was that I was too long in changing from second into low gear. We were barely crawling up the hill at the time, so I 'decided to change into low gear. When I endeavoured "to do this the car stopped, and before I could apply either brake we were going backward ever the side of the road. I can assure you that the experience of dropping backwards a couple of'hundred feet through space is an experience I never want to have again in my life." Mr M Dermott's son-in-law (Mr Caley) received his injuries in rather a remarkable fashion. He was standing in the car just before it went over, and the backward rush threw him on to the road. He broke a small bone in his leg. Those who went over with the car were Mr and Mrs.. M - Dermott and their daughter (Mrs Middlemiss). The car (a Maxwell) was, strange to say, not badly damaged, ana was got back on the road to-day.