CAR CAPSIZES

Southland Times, Issue 20045, 6 December 1926, Page 7

CAR CAPSIZES

PASSENGER. KILLED ACCIDENT NEAR TAURANGA WOMAN IN CRITICAL CONDITION (Per United Press Association.) Tauranga, December 4. A motor car fatality occurred about three o’clock this afternoon, about nine miles from Tauranga on the Tauranga-Waihi road. It appears that Mr Leslie Allan Cooper employed at the Borough Hydro Electric Station at McLaren’s FaHs, with his wife and two children, drove tn Waikina yesterday to bring Mrs Cooper’s parents, Mr and Mrs John Odium, of Waikino, across for Christmas. The party were returning to-day and when they reached the point stated the car apparently swerved, hit a bank and capsized. Mr Cooper, who was driving, was thrown out through the windscreen and Mrs Cooper was also thrown clear. The children also escaped uninjured but Mr Odium was picked up dead and Mrs Odium was found seriously injured. A passing motor car driven by Mr Hugo Dickson came upon the party and found Mr Odium and the Coopers clear of the car but Mrs Odium and the two Cooper children still mixed up in the wrecked hood. With the assistance of some men who arrived almost simultaneously from the other direction in a motor lorry, the overturned car was lifted clear.

The children were all right but Mrs Odium was found to be seriously injured and brought by Mr Dickson to the Tauranga Hospital. She was found to be suffering from a fractured skull, a broken leg and internal injuries. Her condition is critical. The body of Mr Odium was brought into Tauranga later.