REMARKABLE ESCAPE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19880, 6 March 1939, Page 4

REMARKABLE ESCAPE

CHINESE MOTORISTS

CRASH NEAR WAIROA

TRAPPED IN MOTOR CAR

(Special to the Herald.)

WAIROA, this day. Remarkable escapes from serious injuries were experienced by six Chinese who were travelling from Gisborne to Wairoa yesterday morning, when their sedan motor car crashed over a bank at Tuhara. The men were all trapped in the car, the roof of which had to be cut away to enable them to escape. Only two of the party were injured, they being Tak Lim, head injuries. Joe Moo, injuries to hand. They were treated by Dr. Hallwright, neither being seriously hurt. The car was extensively damaged. The driver was Mr. Norman Yew and with him in the front seat were two boys, Henry Moo, aged 15, and Joe Moo, aged 12. The others were Pak Lim, Koong Luen and Tommy Foo, all of Gisborne.

The mishap occurred at 11.45 a.m., about two chains on the Wairoa side of the crown of the Tuhara Hill, where there is a deceptive bend for motorists approaching Wairoa. In rounding the corner the wheels on the left-hand side of the car got into the watertable and the driver in endeavouring to regain the roadway, accelerated, at the same time pulling hard on the steering wheel. The car leapt from the water-table and before Mr. Yew could straighten up again it shot across the road and over the bank.

The car rolled over 1_ times and came to rest on its side at the foot of the bank. It was then discovered by the men, all of whom had received a severe shaking, that the doors were jammed and, despite frantic efforts, they could not release themselves. Petrol from the fuel tank was flowing all about the car and there was little doubt that had a glowing cigarette butt or a lighted match been dropped anywhere near the vehicle the men would have had little chance of escaping with their lives.

Fortunately, Mr. H. J. Gemmell, Wairoa, who had been spending a holiday at Opoutama, was returning to Wairoa just at that time and was following closely behind the Chinese. Together with Mr. V. E. Winter, who was a passenger in his car, Mr. Gemmell cut the top of the car open and enabled the trapped motorists to escape.

THREE PEOPLE INJURED

FRASERTOWN ACCIDENT (Special to the Herald.) WAIROA, this day. . As a result of a collision between two cars on the rise near the golf course on Frazertown road at 11.45 p.m. on Saturday three people were injured. They were: — Leslie Samuel Vincent, of Tuai, who suffered minor abrasions. Mrs. Vincent, who received a cut on the head and injuries to her teeth. William Patrick Lawton, father of Mrs. Vincent, who suffered a cut forehead and abrasions.

Mr. Vincent was driving towards Frazertown, his wife sitting beside him in the front seat and his father-in-law in the rear. On the rise near the golf links the car met another car being driven towards Wairoa by John Smith, a Maori of Frasertown, who had one passenger in the back seat. The wings of the cars met and the force of the impact threw both vehicles some distance, neither capsizing.

Mr. Smith and his passenger escaped injury. _______