AUCKLAND TRAM SMASH

Southland Times, Issue 19396, 10 November 1924, Page 6

AUCKLAND TRAM SMASH

A MARVELLOUS ESCAPE. CAUSE OF THE RUNAWAY. (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, November 8. A description of the perilous situation of the three occupants of the motor car (Mr A. A. Donald, Mrs Donald, and Mrs Morley), which was run into and wrecked by a runaway tram in Wellesley street on Friday night, was given by Mr Lewis, a motorist, who was one of the first to reach the wreckage. Mr Lewis said that at first glance the three people seemed to have been killed instantaneously. Mr Donald was jammed in the midst of a sheet of metal and was semi-conscious. The wreckage was raised, and, w'orking by the light of an electric torch, Lewis and others extricated Mr Donald and laid him on the footpath. Mrs Donald and Mrs Morley were lying practically underneath the splintered platform of the tramcar. One of the sufferers was moaning, and the rescuers experienced considerable difficulty iu extricating her and relieving the pressure of the shattered metal, which threatened to crush both women. Mr Lewis said he lifted Mrs Donald from a space in the midst of the wreckage into which a child might hardly have been able to crawl. MOTORMAN’S STORY. Daniel Ferguson, motorman on the runaway tramcar, states that after turning the corner into Welleslay street east his tram was struck from behind by a follownig car. All the lights went out. He used all his brakes, but the car gathered speed and jumped the points at Queen street, and carried in front of it a motor car to the kerbing. F. U. Whelan, motorman of the following car, states that when car 83 was a short distance round the corner into Wellesley street it appeared to slow down and then speed up again. Getting too close, he applied the emergency brake, but struck the car in front. W. Porteous, conductor of the runaway car, was on the rear platform, and had one foot caught in the wreckage. He was not released until the car left the rails. The twenty passengers in the car behaved splendidly for the most part.