BURIED UNDER TIMBER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17956, 7 December 1932, Page 6

BURIED UNDER TIMBER

TRUCK CAPSIZES .COLLISION IN WAIOEKA DRIVER AND PASSENGER HURT. The driver of a motor truck, and a companion who was travelling with him, had a remarkable escape from serious injury when the truck capsized over the bank after colliding with a car in the Waioeka Gorge this morning. The driver was Mr. A. L. Beets, of Matawai, and his passenger was a man named Ward, of Whakatane. The truck was laden with sawn timber, and was proceeding towards Opotiki when it collided with an Auckland car coming towards Gisborne, the accident occurring at a point about three miles on the Gisborne side of the Wairata turn-off. The truck left the road, and turned over, coming to rest on its wheels about 20ft below the road level. It was an almost sheer drop to the river, but a tree stump and scrub growing on the bank prevented the truck from falling into the river. Both men were completely buried underneath the timber, though Ward was covered by a lesser amount of timber than the driver of the truck. A roadtrian who had been Working near by, and the occupants of the car immediately went to the assistance of the men, and the Auckland-Automo-bile Association’s Gisborne patrol, together with the association’s Opotiki agent, Air. C. Pipe, oil route to Gisborne, arrived on the scene of the accident about five minutes after it occurred. Both men were conscious, and did not appear to be seriously injured. Beets had received a cut on the left side of the head, and Ward was badly cut about the face, and was bleeding from the nose. First aid was rendered by the A.A.A. patrol, and the two men were then taken to Opotiki by the driver of the car with which the truck, had collided.

The Auckland car .was undamaged, and its occupants were not injured.