FATAL PLUNGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23331, 25 October 1937, Page 8

FATAL PLUNGE

TRAGEDY IN KAWARAU GORGE TWO TERRITORIALS KILLED SEVEN OTHERS INJURED A passenger bus carrying 12 territorials from Roxburgh to Queenstown, where a week-end training camp was to take place, ran off the road In the Kawarau Gorge on Saturday and fell about 50 feet into the gorge, the driver being killed almost out- ' right and all the occupants more or less seriously injured. One died subsequently in Cromwell! Hospital, where all were taken when the accident was discovered, and another was placed on the seriously ill list. KILLED Those killed were: — LANCE - CORPOKAL KENNETH ROBB, single, of Roxburgh, driver of the bus. ■ PRIVATE ALBERT KINASTON, single, of Roxburgh, died in hospital. , INJURED The injured are:— PRIVATE N. HARRAWAY, single, of Roxburgh, injuries to neck; seriously ill, but showing improvement. LANCE-CORPORAL B. TUBMAN, single, of Roxburgh, injuries to face and head. LANCE-CORPORAL L. GEORGE, single, of Roxburgh, shock and head injuries. PRIVATE A. GILCHRIST, married, of Roxburgh, arm injured and shock and abrasions. PRIVATE T. HAYES, married, of Roxburgh, lacerated leg. PRIVATE A. McKECHNIE, married, of Roxburgh, bruises and abrasions. PRIVATE’ A. BELL, single, of Ettrick, injuries to arm and face. UNINJURED Three members of the party were fortunate enough to escape injury other than minor cuts and bruises. These were Corporal H. Gilchrist, Private S. de Silva and Private I. Hiscock. They returned to their homes at Roxburgh on Saturday night. HAPPENED QUICKLY “It all happened so quickly that no one could say how the accident came about,” one of the men told Lieutenant A. R. Alexander, officer in charge of the party, when he visited them in the hospital on Saturday night. All were definite on the point, however, that the bus was travelling slowly when it went over the bank. PARTY FROM ROXBURGH The party, consisting of about 26 men and non-commissioned officers, left Roxburgh during the morning to attend the week-end training camp at Queenstown. They travelled in two buses, and Lieutenant Alexander went by motor car. About 12 miles past Cromwell and a short distance from the Roaring Meg, at a place known as Pigeon Rock, the bus driven by Robb failed to negotiate a sharp right-hand turn and plunged over the bank, falling about 50 feet before its progress was arrested by a large rock. Had the rock not stopped its fall, the bus and its occupants would undoubtedly have gone into the Kawarau River with, in all probability, a considerably larger number of fatalities. There were no eye-witnesses of ’ the bus’s plunge over the bank, and the opinion is held by some who later visited the scene of the tragedy that it capsized o:n the road before going over the bank, a quantity of broken glass on the roadside lending colour to this theory. A FORTUNATE CHANGE Two of those who left Roxburgh in the bus which came to grief were more' fortunate than the others, as they decided Eft Clyde to change into the other bus, which was less crowded. ACCIDENT NOT SEEN The occupants of the bus 'who were not seriously injured clambered up to the road, where a passing car was stopped and the news sent back to Cromwell. The Cromwell police were advised at 2.15 p.m., probably more than an hour after the accident, and cars were immediately despatched, to the scene to bring in the injured, all of whom were transferred as quickly as possible to the Cromwell Hospital. The body of the driver was taken to the morgue.

BUS COMPLETELY WRECKED “ The bus, as far as could be seen from the road,” stated one of the members of the rescue party, “ appeared to be smashed to matchwood, The body was torn off the chassis, and the two parts of the bus lay some distance apart.” It was the property of Robbs’ Motors, Roxburgh.