WOMEN KILLED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23545, 4 January 1940, Page 6

WOMEN KILLED

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER TRAIN WRECKS CAR COLLISION AT CROSSING VEHICLE THROWN A CHAIN fBY TELEGRAPH —OWN COURKSPONDKNTI MORRINSVILLE, Wednesday Two women, mother and daughter, wore killed just after seven o'clock this evening when a motor-car of which they were the only occupants was struck by a Rotorua-Auckland passenger train at the Motumaolio levelcrossing about two miles from Morrinsville. The victims were: — Mrs. Laura Smith, aged 64 years, wife of Mr. Maurice Walton Smith, of Puriri, near Thames. Miss Agnes Constance Walton Smith, aged 24, of Puriri. Miss Smith was driving the car from Hamilton in the direction of Puriri. The train, travelling in the opposite direction, left Morrinsville for Frankton at 7.5 p.m. Instant Death The car went on to the line just in front of the train. The car was wrecked and the occupants were killed instantly. Miss Smith was thrown on a bank beside the crossing, while her mother was carried into an old sand pit 12 yards away from the road. The body of the car was torn from tho chassis and hurled a chain away. Mr. Smith and his family worked a small farm near Thames. The police and a doctor were quickly on the scene. The train, which was not damaged, was 18 minutes late on reaching Frankton. Bridge Work Discontinued About two years ago the Public Works Department contemplated erecting an overbridgo to eliminate the crossing at which tho accident occurred. However, after several reinforced concrete piles had been constructed the work was abandoned. The piles remain in a paddock alongside the scene. This is the second fatal accident to occur at level-crossings near Morrinsville within six weeks. The other was when a motor-lorry driver was killed at the Piako crossing on the east side of the town.