MOTOR-CAR WRECKED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21130, 12 March 1932, Page 10

MOTOR-CAR WRECKED.

PLUNGE DOWN BANK.

OCCURRENCE A MYSTERY.

NO SIGN OF OCCUPANTS,

VEHICLE BELIEVED STOLEN

[BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON. Friday.

Crashing several hundred feet down a steep hillside about nine o'clock this evening, a five-seate:' motor-car was almost completely wrecked beside the Main Trunk railway line, a short distance north of the Hutt Road railway bridge. Parts of the car were broken off in the fall and lay on the track, and the remainder of the wreck was close by. The number-plate, which was found torn off, corresponded with the numberplate of a motor-car stolen from Pctone not long before the smash occurred. As far as could he ascertained to-night no one had been injured. The car reached the railway lino from a point near the junction of Sar Street and Norman Street. Above the place where it appeared to have left the road there is no railing, and the bank is covered "with gorse, running steepiy down to the railway line. Not far fro-n the place where the car started on i",s headlong fall a motor-jack and puir.p were found. No explanation could be found for their presence there, ard the fact that the car was empty and there was no sign of anyone injured heightened the mystery of the occurrence. The slope of the road at the top is not particularly steep, and it was difficult 'to understand how the car came to take its plunge. It must have spun rather than rolled down the precipitous bank. At the bottom, near the railway line, pieces of the car were strewn everywhere. Some of the principal parts of the frame were almost twisted back on each other. Pieces of glass were all over the track. The 9.30 p.m. train from Thorndon to Johnsonville was held up for a few minutes, but the delay was not serious, and the train got. through without difficulty. Later in the evening the car was removed from the track and brought down to the lower level of the Hutt Road.

The hillside is a difficult place to search at night, and it is not known for certain whether there might not be someone lying on the bank. The police went out to the scene of the accident, but returned without having discovered anyone injured.