MOTOR CAR SMASH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23885, 12 August 1939, Page 11

MOTOR CAR SMASH

STRUCK BY SUBURBAN TRAIN VEHICLE CARRIED FORTY YARDS TWO MEN INJURED tpEB United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Aug. 11. Two men were injured when the car in which they were travelling was struck by a suburban train at Mount Albert to-day. The victims, who were the only occupants of the car. were as follows: George Bowen Fritchle, architect, aged 50, single, the driver and owner of the car, suffered injury to his chest and shock. His condition is not serious. , . , Sidney Herbert Featherstone, land agent, aged 28, single, was discharged from hospital after treatment for shock. Both the train and the motor car were travelling towards the city. With a loud crash, the train struck the car squarely on the left-hand side, tossed it into the air, and crried it about 40 yards down the track before depositing it on its side in a shallow depression on the left of the rails. In its course the car struck the end of a fence, snapping off a heavy post at the ground. The train, which was driven by J. Polkinghorne, was pulled up within a short space. Through the force of the impact the car was badly damaged on one side and the hood was broken. Unable to escape by the doors, the occupants crawled through the sun trap in the roof and were then assisted to a nearby house by workmen who had been engaged on the railway line about 100 yards away.