TRAMWAY ACCIDENT IN WELLINGTON.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8804, 4 May 1907, Page 2

TRAMWAY ACCIDENT IN WELLINGTON.

Per Press Association* Wellington, May 3. A serious accident occurred on the Brooklyn section of City Tramways this 'evening; resulting in the death of Mr 3 Bell, of Murchison, and tho infliction of injuries on her husband, Thomas Bell the motorman, John Eae; and the conductor, Arthur Perkins. The Brooklyn line leaves Upper Willis-street at the foot of Nairn-street and proceeds over a sharp incline to tho suburban area on the hill-top southward of the city. While descending this inclino one of the big new palace cars left the track at a point near the foot of Nairn-street plantation, and after travelling about fifteen yards, in the course of which the under carriage was ripped off, it over the embankment, which at this point is about five feet in height. Mrs Bell was, it is simDosed from the nature of her injuries, killed outright, but it was over an hour before her body could be faken from under the car, which is of great weight, and could only bo shifted by the use of powerful jacks. Her husband was slightly injured, and was removed to a neighbouring house. Eae and Perkins were taken «to the hospital suffering from cuts and contusions. , * ■jj- Mr and Mrs Bell were on holiday, and were leturning to their home from Chris'tchurch and other places in the South. They had taken a trip in the car to view the citv from Brooklyn heights. For some time after Brooklyn section was opened for traffic the City Council only had a permit to run what are known as box cars, the lightest cars on the city tracks, up this incline, and only twentyfour people were allowed to ride each trip. Traffic, however, increased so much that the Public Works Department, after making tests, gave a permit for heavier cars to run on the section. The palace cars, one of which came to grief, each carries sixty passengers. How the mishap occurred isnotknown, but it i 3 supposed that the car ran away from the brakes.