LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22498, 16 February 1935, Page 14

LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

CAR STRUCK BY TRAIN THREE SERIOUSLY INJURED (Peb United Press Association) AUCKLAND, February 15. Four people were injured, three of them seriously, when a motor car in which they were returning from Pukekohe to Auckland came into collision with a locomotive of the WaiukuPaerata train at the Pukekohe road level crossing this afternoon. The victims were:— ERNEST CLEAVE, aged 47 years, concussion, condition serious. MRS DOROTHY CLEAVE, wife of Ernest Cleave, concussion, condition serious. MISS JOYCE CLEAVE, daughter of Ernest Cleave, aged 19 years, concussion, condition serious. Walter Rowe, of Remuera, injury to pelvis, condition not serious.

Heavy rain was falling at the*time. The accident occurred when the car was nearly at the crossing. It swerved sharply to the right, but the left side came into contact with the middle of the engine. The car was hurled into the fence which marks the boundary of the cattle stops, and turned completely over. The hood was crumped, the windscreen shattered, and the bodywork extensively damaged. The fence was levelled to the ground. Rowe was able to extricate himself from the vehicle, and he was helping the two women when he collapsed. The crew of the train, with the help of passengers and passers-by, righted the car and extricated the occupants, who were brought to the Auckland Hospital.