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TRAMCAR ACCIDENT AT PARNELL.

MILK WAGGON OVERTURNED. A GIRL'S NARROW ESCAPE. Another electric tramcar accident occurred at Parnell on Saturday evening, when a car uasned into a milk-cart. Fortunately the accident was not attended with any very serious consequences, although one of the occupants of the driver's box of the milk-cart hud a miraculous escape from receiving fatal injury. It appears that it is the custom of an employee of the Auckland Dairy Company, named William McLelland, to convey a load of milk from his employer's depot at Papatoitoi, to town every evening, delivering portions of his load at various dairies en route. McLelland was proceeding ■ along the Great South Road, at Ellerslie, shortly after six o'clock on Saturday evening, when two young women named Rebecca Scott and Erne McMorrine, domestic servants in Mr. Henry Nolan's employ, at Ellerslie, hailed him and asked a lift townwards. . He acquiesced, and all went well till the railway bridge at the foot of Alpha Road, Parnell, was reached. The routs adopted by McLelland tras by way of Selwyn Terrace, which joins Alnha Road at the foot of an incline. It was while passing under the bridge, a few yards from the junction of the roads, that the collision occurred, the waggon, a covered three-horse one, being crashed into by an electric tramcar, which was coming down Alpha Road at a fair rate of speed. The result of the impact was that the waggon was carried along for a distance of some half-dozen yards and overturned. Both the girls were thrown from the box seat on to the horses, which were struggling on the ground, but the driver was more fortunate, and fell clear on to the road.

Willing assistance was lent by bystanders, and the girls were extricated from their perilous position, and earned into the Swan Hotel near by. Miss McMorrine was rescued with some difficulty, as one oi the horses was half lying on her, and it was feared at the time that her back was seriously injured, as she was apparently paralysed. Constables Bevan and Hutchinson were not long in procuring the services of Dr. Mackellar and tho ambulance waggon, and after reviving first aid the unfortunate girls were removed to the hospital. They were both found to b<s severely lacerated about the head and hands and to be suffering great! v from shock. Miss Scott had sustained a severe scalp wound, and Miss McM orrine's. back, which was at first thought to be seriously injured, was found'to be only bruised. They are both progressing favourably under the care of the hospital authorities. McLtlland states that he did not know either of the girls, and had merely given them a ride to oblige them. He alleges that as soon as he heard the bell of the tramcar ringing he went to pull clear of the line, but his waggon was almost instantly struck from behind. The motorman was John Patrick Ryan, who was driving No. 2 car, of the smaller type. He states that he saw the waggon ahead, and sounded the alarm. The waggon seemed to pull clear of the line, and as he drew near to it, seemed to swerve on. to the rails again so as to render an accident inevitable. He immediately applied the emergency brake, and brought the car to a. standstill within half-a-dozen yards after striking. Eye witnesses of the occurrence state that McLelland wis driving on the wrong side of the road, and pulled over so that the car just caught the side of the waggon. The damarre to the waggon consisted of both the near side wheels being taken off, and one of the axles broken. The horses were slightly cut about, but not otherwise injured. It is considered that some means should be taken to light the roadway under the bridge, as it is practically impossible to discern an approaching or receding vehicle when coming down the Alpha Road incline The spot is undoubtedly a dangerous one, as in addition to the want of lighting there ,s insufficient space between the tramrails and tho pier of the railway bridge to enable a vehicle to pass.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19030406.2.32

Bibliographic details

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12238, 6 April 1903, Page 5

Word Count
694

TRAMCAR ACCIDENT AT PARNELL. New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12238, 6 April 1903, Page 5

TRAMCAR ACCIDENT AT PARNELL. New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12238, 6 April 1903, Page 5