FIERCE FIRE FOLLOWS CAPSIZE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22629, 18 January 1937, Page 8

FIERCE FIRE FOLLOWS CAPSIZE

KING COUNTRY TRAGEDY [by telegraph—OTX correspondent] TAUMARUNUI, Sunday A terrible fate befel three Owhango men at 9.30 o'clock on Saturday night when a small two-door sedan motor-car in which they were returning from Taumarunui to Owhango swefved from the left to the right side of the road, ran along a low bank, then twenty feet down a slope and capsized with its wheels in the air. The car burst into flames and the occupants were trapped and incinerated, the remains being unrecognisable. Ihe men were . Roy Victor Bishop, aged 34 years, of Owhango, single, employed as roadman by the Kaitieke County Council. Mr. Bishop was the owner and driver of the car. Gerald Flynn, farmer, of Owhango, aged 51 years, single, a returned soldier. Charles William Farrell, farmer, of Owhango, aged 46, married, with •six children, a returned soldier. There were no eye witnesses of the accident, but a car driven by Mr. Roy Ford, going to Raurimu, and following about ten minutes behind Mr. Bishop's car, came upon the blazing vehicle at a spot about four miles on the Taumarunui side of Owhango. Found Upside Down and Blazing Fiercely The car was upside down and blazing fiercely. Mr. Ford found the heat so intense that he could not approach near enough to do anything. He dashed off to Mr. H. "Furlong's farm for assistance. * In the meanwhile, a car with three other occupants, Messrs. C. G. Nicoll, C. A. Nicoll, and H. T. Aldridge, arrived on the scene travelling from Taumarunui, but they also were powerless to approach the car, which was described as an inferno. Mr. Ford returned with Mr. Furlong and they discovered an arm protruding from the window of the car. Realising that the occupants were beyond aid, they motored to the nearest telephone at Piriaka and called the Taumarunui Police. Identification Made by Three Watches Sergeant Clist, and constables MacLennan and Bruce at once set out by car and arrived at the scene at 10.20 p.m. The car was still burning then and they subdued the flames with ti-tree and water from Mr. Furlong's farm. They turned the car over and found the three bodies almost reduced to cinders. They were remo\ed to the mortuary at Taumarunui and identification was established on Sunday afternoon by three watches which were found among the debris of the burned car and by a few particles of clothing. The spot where the accident happened is on the main highway about three hundred yards beyond the second turn off to Kakahi after leaving Taumarunui. It is not known what caused the mishap, but wheel marks at the locality show that the car must have been travelling fairly fast. Motor Burned From End to End There is a bend in"the road about one hundred yards from the spot where the accident happened. After negotiating the bend the wheel marks show plainly that the car left the left hand side of the road and in doing so ploughed up the road, then shot across to the right of the road, struck a three feet high bank and ran about thirty feet along it before crashing twenty feet down a slope and

capsizing. The occupants of the cars which discovered the tragedy, and which were following behind Mr. Bishop's car, state that no cars passed them coming from or going to Taumarunui, which disposes of the possibility that Mr. Bishop's car might have been forced off the road by another car. Three tyres on the car were burned completely off and the body of the car was burned from end to end. It was a complete wreck.