FATALITIES AT LEVEL s CROSSING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 13 August 1928, Page 4

FATALITIES AT LEVEL s CROSSING

MAORI WOMAN AND HER . CHILD KILLED

{By Telegraph.—Presa Asaoolation) AUCKLAND, This Day. A lerel crossing fatality occurred at Matamata at midday on Saturday, a special picnic train southward bound from Auckland to Arapuni crashing into a motor car and killing a Maori woman and her child, and seriously injuring two others. »

Mrs Deason Kati, 20, of Waharoa, and, her baby boy 10 months old were killed. Andrew Randrup, 46, a farmer of Hinuera, ..-received a. severe scalp wound, and Mrs Ruru Kati, 28, sustained a fracture' of the right thigh. The car was thrown. 40 feet, and when the train pulled up Mrs, Deason S Kati was .found dead on the cow catcher. The others had been thrown clear. The car was .smashed to fragments, parts of it being scattered in all directions. The car apparently was well, screened up at the time, and this possibly accounted for Randrup's not. seeing the train. The impact was nor felt by the passengers aboard the train. Some excursionists assisted in taking the injured to hospital, and in clearing away the wreckage. ■

COLLISION AT SHANNON A MAN AND A WOMAN ' ' SEVERELY INJURED PALMERSTON N., This Day. _ As the result of a level crossing collision at ■ Shannon, a man named - J,. Spooner, of Palmerston North, and Mrs Baker, of Shannon, who was travelling as a passenger, sustained severe injuries and were admitted to the Palmerston North Hospital. The. north-bound . Auckland express hit a car driven, by Spooner and threw/ it right over; the cattle stops to a fence about,2o yards away; completely wrecking the vehicle, which looked as though'it had beeil hit by a bomb. Mrs Baker was thrown 20 feet clear of the car> and sustained very severe internal injuries, while Spooner was pinned underneath and was unconscious when extricated. His right leg was fractured.