RUNAWAY MOTOR-LORRY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11422, 19 January 1923, Page 8

RUNAWAY MOTOR-LORRY

HELTER-SKELTER DOWN AURORA TERRACE, FENCE SMASHED- AND VEHICLE DAMAGED. Shortly after D o’clock yesterday afternoon a heavy motor-lorry belong ing to Messrs E. T. Taylor and 00.. wine and spirit merchants, bottlers, etc., Coifftenay) place, got ,ouit of tonttrol comlinjg down. A u reins terrace, and what might have proved a very serious accident resulted. The driver of the lorry (Frederick Noss, who has been in the firm’s employ for the last two years), found that it was gaining speed rapidly at the top *‘f the hill: but, with all his exertions, could only get one brake, that on the off front aide, to grip, while the engine “got into neutral.” Consequently the vehicle came helter-skelter down the hill, and on reaching the corner of Aurora terrace and Wellington terrace, had attained such speed and impetus that it failed to take the curve, and skidded instead across the road, striking, partly sidewise, the fence not immediately opposite Aurora terrace, but. a few yards down towards Woodward street. The kerb checked the speed of the lorry to some extent, and the breaking, one after the other, of the stout posts that upheld the fence, checked it still more, with the result that it came to a standstill without damaging the office-building inside tho fence. Fortunately, what is somewhat unusual at that hour of the day, there were no pedestrians nor motorcars or other vehicles in the immediate vicinitv at the, time of the runawav, and a small child, wfyich had been playing by the fence only a few tseooiwls before, had just gone home, next door. The driver, too, who bravely stuck to his post, doing his best to avert an accident, escaped unhurt, though the wind screen was badlv damaged, both front wheels of the lorrv broken, the near side splashboard and the wood' work near it smashed into kindling wpod. The wonder was that he was rot hurled through th'd head first against the building. Probably only the tight crip he kept on the wheel, in the to steer the lorry safely into Wellington terrace, prevented his being thrown out.