FATAL PLUNGE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19827, 3 January 1939, Page 5

FATAL PLUNGE

TWO MEN KILLED ESCAPE OF COMPANION CAE LEAVES ROADWAY DROP OF 200 FEET TRAGEDY NEAR TARAWERA (Per Press Association.) HASTINGS, this day. Two persons were killed ond one injured when a motor car in which they were travelling on the NapierTaupo road left the roadway and plunged 200 ft. down the Turangakuma Hill, near Tarawera, at 6.30 o'clock on Sunday evening. The victims were:—

KILLED William Kenneth Weir, single, aged 27, of 30 Montrose street. Syden- , oam, Christchurch. Kenneth Samuel Mack, single, aged 24, of 199 Tinakori road. Wellington. INJURED Cedric Roland Hogan, aged 23, single, of 99 Main South road, Upper Riccarton, Christchurch; abrasions, condition not serious.

All three were meat inspectors employed by the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company at Moerewa. North Auckland.

The five-seater saloon owned by Mr. Hogan was being driven by Mr. Weir, who had just taken the wheel. While passing another car, the saloon left the road and rolled down the bank. After somersaulting three times through scrub and bracken, it landed on its wheels on the same road as that which it had left, but 200 ft. below where the road curves back lower on the hill.

Mr. Hogan, who escaped with injurier, was thrust through the roof of the vehicle as it plunged down the hillside and was found about halfway down. Mr. Mack, who,suffered extensive head injuries, succumbed several hours after the accident. Mr. Weir was killed instantly. The car was extensively damaged. The roof was almost torn off and the body was shattered. Police and a doctor from Napier were on the scene by about 11 p.m. and the injured man was removed to the Napier Public Hospital in the doctor's car.