HUNDREDS KILLED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26478, 4 June 1947, Page 5

HUNDREDS KILLED

THREE-DAY TOLL IN AMERICA NEW YORK, June 2. At least 450 violent deaths in automobile accidents, aeroplane crashes, tornadoes, drownings, and miscellaneous mishaps, were reported over the, three-day Memorial Holiday. The automobile took first place as the killer, with a death roll of 201. Aeroplanes killed 105, including 95 in the nation’s two worst air crashes. Drownings totalled 50. Searchers recovered 37 bodies from the wreckage in the path of the tornado, which smashed through four •villages south of Pinebluff, Arkansas, late yesterday. At least 15 persons are known to be missing, 71 were severely injured, and several hundred suffered minor injuries. Initial estimates place the number of homes destroyed as between 500 and 1000. The tornado, which cut a swathe 20 miles long and 10 mile? wide, played the usual freakish tricks and left some places in its path untouched.

AIR TRAVEL STILL UNSAFE NEW YORK, June 2-

“ Commercial air travel is still eight times more dangerous than rail or bus travel,” said the Secretary of Commerce, Mr Averell Harriman, testifying before the Senate Appropriation Committee. He added that air accidents were likely to increase unless facilities improved. Concessional threats to cut Federal aviation funds would be a “ penny wise ” policy, and a great setback to civil aviation.