LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12538, 30 August 1926, Page 6

LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

MOTOR-CAR AND TRAIN WOMAN KILLED AND THREE INJURED TRAGEDY NEAR MARTON per Press Association. AIARTON. August 28. A distressing level-crossing accident, resulting in a woman being killed and three other persons being more or less seriously injured, occurred at the Greatford Station, four miles from Alarton, at 6.30 last night, when the Wanganui-Palmerston North mixed train ran into a five-seater car driven by Mr Leonard Weston, a well-known Mnngaweka resident. Mr Weston was accompanied by his daughter Beattie, aged 7 years, his sister-in-law, Mrs Jurgens, of Taihape, and Bertie Jurgens, aged 7 years. The party were returning from Palmerston North after having conveyed Mrs Weston to the hospital there. KEPT A GOOD LOOK-OUT It is stated that on approaching the crossing Mr Weston kept a good lookout, especially towards the station, but when he reached the rails he found the train, coming from the opposite direction, almost upon them. He made frantic efforts to get the car off the track, but was too late to avoid a crash which threw the car and the occupants on to the roadway. The car was borne along to a cattlestop, where it was deposited in a mass of wreckage. Mrs Jurgens and the boy Bertie were seriously hurt, and were sent to the hospital, where the woman died at 11 p.m. The others suffered from injuries and shocK.