ANOTHER CROSSING TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19759, 9 April 1926, Page 13

ANOTHER CROSSING TRAGEDY

LORRY DRIVER KILLED. ACCIDENT NEAR TAUPIRI. (Pek United Peess Association.) AUCKLAND, April 8. The New Zealand Herald’s Hamilton correspondent telephoned to-night as follows: —The long list of fatal railway crossing accidents was added to to-day near Taupiri, when the Auckland-bound Thames express collided with a one-ton motor lorry at 2 p.m. The motor was owned by the electrical branch of the Public Works Department. The driver, William Henry Cornthwaite, was killed. Cornthwaite, a single man, aged 22, who resided at Hamilton, was the only occupant of the vehicle. The deceased left Hamilton with a load of camping material about 1 p.m., and was driving with his back to the train, which he apparently did not see approaching. The train struck the lorry and carried it about a chain before it pulled up. The motor was completely wrecked. The deceased, who was killed instantly, suffered a fractured skull and had both his legs broken. The express, which was running late, was delayed a further 10 minutes. The body was conveyed by a later train to Huntly, where an inquest was opened and adjourned. The scene of the accident was on the Kainui road, half a mile south of Taupiri. The deceased had been employed by the Public Works Department at Hamilton as a lorry driver for 10 weeks.