TRAIN WRECKS CAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20968, 3 September 1931, Page 8

TRAIN WRECKS CAR.

FAMILY'S NABItOW KSCAIfc

BOY TRAPPED IN VEHIC®

SCALP WOUND ONLY

OTHERS JUMP TO SAFETY,

A motor-car tossed in the air like jfflj and the efforts of a father and mother t save their children were features of level-crossing collision iri Asquith Mount Albert, about i> p.m. yesteria' The car was practically wrecked, but tsj only person who suffered injury tr aj boy aged eight years, who miraculous), escaped with a scalp wound, in which fa, stitches had to be inserted. - J®

The car, an almost new five-seater owned by Mr. C. J. McHardy, 0 f 85 1 Mount Albert Tioad, was being driven * toward Mount Albert li>y Mr. McKardv j Beside him in the front seat was Mrs. J£ 1 Hardy and in the back seat were th«j I three sons, aged 11 years, eight, years atj ii six years. On reaching the Asqaitl ■' Avenue railway crossiag, which pafa a ;j over the road at the top of an incline, thj I engine of the car stalled, and the vehicfo came to rest. The next moment ihe occn. ! pants became aware of a train approach, j ing from the direction of the city.

With a sudden feeling of horror cam the realisation of their predicament. Jj£ and Mrs. McHardy scrambled from (h, car and frantically attempted to drag'tfoj children after them. They seized one of the boys ' and he pulled his nearest brother with him to the roadway. Theq with i violent crash the engine of the train struck the front of the car.

With the third lad inside, the veljdi was lifted into the air, carried across tin road, and hurled to the 6ide of the ap manent way, where it crashed on Ua left side against a fence facing the iiiefr tion from which the train had come.

All but overwhelmed! by the shock their own close call, Mr. and Mrs. Hardy rushed to the capsized car, few of the worst being uppermost in that minds. To their unbounded relief tin boy crawled from the front of the wreckage. He emerged crying and it was sea that his head had been injured. A number of residents of houses closi by had heard the crash of the collision, and by this time were on the scene. TU lad was taken to a houso and I)r. H. Pettit was summoned. It was then found thai Ihe boy had escaped v,ith a scalp wonirf and bruises. Later in i;he evening he t«b .aken back to his home. .

The wrecked vehicli presented a sorrj rpectacle. All the coachwork was crushed and splintered, and . the . windows and windscreen were shattered to fragmenti The two front wheels wore stripped to the hubs, and the engine was forced back toward the front seat,. The mudguardi c.nd running boards were a twisted mast,