TWO LIVES SAVED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23129, 30 August 1938, Page 10

TWO LIVES SAVED

MAN AND SON IN CAE TRAPPED UNDER WATER RESCUE BY FARMER AND WIFE [from our OWN correspondent] HAMILTON. Monday A narrow escape from drowning was experienced by Mr. Walter 0 Brien, aged about 40, farmer, of Okaeria, Te Kauwhata, and his seven-year-old son, Wallace, when they were trapped in a car which was submerged in a stream. Mr. O'Brien was driving along the Te Kauwhata-Waerenga road and swerved to avoid a stationary car. Mr. O'Brien's car skidded and, turning a somersault, fell into a stream which runs alongside the road. The body of the car was completely submerged, onlj the two back wheels showing above the water.

The accident was witnessed by Mrs. Cedric Corley, the wife of a. near by farmer. Mrs. Corley called her husband., who plunged, fully dressed, into the stream. He found that Mr. O Brien and his child were trapped in the car. Mr. Corley was unable to open the front door of the car, but was able to open the back door, and with great difficulty he extricated the two occupants. Both Mr. O'Brien and his son were unconscious and it was at first thought that the boy was dead. Mrs. Corley applied artificial respiration and eventually revived him. Mr. O'Brien responded more quickly to artificial respiration. Except for a broken door the car was not damaged. FALL DOWN PRECIPICE MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FOUR OCCUPANTS OF CAR HAULED UP TO ROAD BY ROPE [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] NELSON. Monday A miraculous escape from injury was experienced by three men and a woman in a small car in the Buller Gorge yesterday afternoon. When a party of Nelsonians who had attended a. football match at Westport were returning, their car was observed by a following car containing the Nelson team to leave the road and disappear over a 130 ft. precipice. By the time the spot was reached by the following car nothing was to be seen except the Buller River flowing at the foot of the precipice. The footballers stood spellbound, the only conclusion possible being that the car and its occupants had disappeared under the water. After some breathless seconds, a head and then the body of an occupant of the car appeared on the surface, followed shortly after by the other three occupants. All managed to reach a ledge of rock. The steepness of the precipice prevented the footballers from rendering any immediate assistance. A rope was secured from the Newton Flat Hotel, two miles away, however, and a'rescue was effected, the four persons being pulled singly up the slope from 50 to 00ft. to a higher ledge before being helped back to the road. The occupants of the car were: —Mr. A. J. Drummond, deputy-superintend-ent of the Nelson fire brigade, the driver and owner; Mrs. Drummond, his wife; Mr. Claude AVilkens and Mr. T. Donaldson. The latter could not swim, but was assisted to safety by Mr. Wilkens. Mrs. Drummond is a good swimmer.

Apart from minor cuts and bruises none suffered serious injury. The car, a small sedan, turned over a number of times down the precipice and fell into the Buller River, which is 10ft. deep at this spot. The car has not been recovered.