MAORI KILLED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17179, 8 February 1930, Page 5

MAORI KILLED

CAB LEAVES EOAD ACCIDENT NEAR MtfRERE DRIVER AND TWO GIRLS INJURED if: ; i (Special to the Herald.) WAIROA, this Jay. . ;. A middle-aged Maori, Teddy Nepia, a drover, of Nuhaka, was killed when flie car in which he was a passenger went over the,bank on Tarewa Hill, on the Gisborne-Wairoa road, at about 1.30 o’clock this morning. Th#car was driven by Tom Dennis, of Gisborne, a well-known Maori AllBlack, and contained three passengers, Nepia and two Maori girls, Mary Maru ana Aheneta Whaanga, both aged about 20 years and residents of Nuhaka. The party was proceeding from Nuhaka to Gisborne, and tho accident occurred just near the commencement of the bitumen roadway on Tarewa Hill, about two chains beyond a number of Public Works Department’s huts. According to a statement made by Dennis, the lights of tho car failed as he was turning a bad bend, and the car left the road, somersaulting several times, and crashing through a fence, to come to rest in a wrecked condition about 2£ chains below the level of the road. * The occupants of tho car were thrown out as it rolled over and over, and Nepia was evidently crushed under the vehicle in its progress down the slope. Ho was killed instantly, having sustained a fractured skull and chest injuries. The two girls escaped with cuts on the legs, and Dennis sustained an injury to his back, and superficial cuts and abrasions. All three were able to make their way back to the road, and were conveyed to Nuhaka by a passing motorist. The driver and the two girls were taken to the Wairoa Hospital; hut it is understood that their condition is not serious. The inquest into the circumstances surrounding' Nepia’s death will probably be held at Nuhaka.