MOTOR COLLISION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 21 June 1937, Page 6

MOTOR COLLISION

ON ONE-WAY BRIDGE FATHER AND SON KILLED A TERRIFIC IMPACT © [United Press Association] BLENHEIM, 20th June. A motor smash costing two lives, those of the driver of the car and his young son, occurred near Waihopai on the Blenheim-West Coast highway, about 15 miles from Blenheim shortly after 5 o’clock on Saturday evening, when a motor-car and a heavily-laden motor-lorry met in a head-on collision on a small bridge. The victims of the accident are:— Mr Frank Donaldson, aged about 34, motor salesman for H. R. Dix and Sons, Blenheim, driver of the car, who was killed instantaneously. He received a broken neck, severe head injuries and a smashed right arm. lan Donaldson, the driver’s son, aged six, who died several hours later in hospital as the result of a fractured skull, fractured jaw and spinal injuries. Mrs Donaldson received minor injuries and was severely shocked. A second child, a girl aged five, escaped harm. The lorry, belonging to Gosling and Sons, and driven by Mr Frank Moreland, Blenheim, was bringing a load of coal from near Murchison to Blenheim, Mr Donaldson proceeding to the Wairau Valley. The vehicles met with a terrific impact on a si* all one-way bridge located in a dip in the road. Mr Donaldson’s car was almost off the bridge when the right front wheels of the vehicles met. The wheel of the car was torn off. The deck of the loi' i' then- struck the car about level with the driver’s head, ripping out the side of gie car, which was thrown against the side of the j bridge, smashing the railings. Indicating the force of the impact, broken j glass from the car’s windscreen was thrown over 50 feet ahead of where the car came to a standstill. Mr Donaldson was formerly a wellknown racing motor-cyclist.

A similar accident, involving the deaths of two Wairau Valley farmers, occured on the same road almost exactly a year ago, when a loaded lorry ripped out the side of a car.