CRASH DOWN SLOPE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23083, 7 July 1938, Page 12

CRASH DOWN SLOPE

CAR'S WILD CAREER PASSENGER GRAVELY HURT LONG TRIP TO HOSPITAL [by telegraph —OWN correspondent] XEW PLYMOUTH, Wednesday Somersaulting several times after leaving the road, a car came to rest at the bottom of a 130 ft. slope on the Mimi Hill, in the Mokau district, early this morning. A passenger, Mr. Arthur Grierson, aged 31, of Cambridge, and formerly of Stratford, suffered a fractured spine, and his condition to-night was reported to be critical. The driver of the car, Mr. Peter Skousgaard, also of Cambridge, was uninjured except for scratches. When proceeding up Mimi Hill the car slipped on tho wet edge of the and toppled over. It stopped upside down in a swamp. It was damaged extensively, but the steel roof construction prevented it from being entirely crushed.

The driver, himself little hurt, went to help his companion, but Mr. Grierson cried out not to bo touched. Mr. Skousgaard then climbed back to the road and went for assistance to the near by house of Mr. D. L. Tate. Mr. Tate drove to Urenui, woke the postmaster, and telephoned to Dr. R. L. Barclay, of Waitara. An ambulance from the New Plymouth Hospital was sent.

The transfer of Mr. Grierson to the ambulance was difficult because of his injuries, and it was not until 4 a.m. that he was admitted to the hospital. An operation was later performed.

The removal of the car from the swamp took many hours, and the full damage was then seen. The outside equipment was smashed, tho front of the car stove in, a door was nearly wrenched off, and the roof dented in many places. Mr. Skousgaard, who is a farmer at Cambridge, owns property at Douglas, and was on his way there when the accidont happened.