CAR'S FATAL PLUNGE INTO FLOODED RIVER

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 236, 6 May 1933, Page 5

CAR'S FATAL PLUNGE INTO FLOODED RIVER

\ THREE PEOPLE yf | DROWNED y ' TWO WOMEN AND A GIRL Vehicle Skidded on Bridge and Fell Into Stream ALLEGATION THAT RAILING WAS ROTTEN ,v - Presa Association. —Cop/right. f Invercargill, Today. A shocking tragedy occurred at 10.30 last evening at Wallacetown, six miles from the city, i when a sedan car containing six passengers plunged into the flooded Makarea River. Three were drowned, but the others miraculously escaped. The victims are: Mrs. Milne, wife of Frank Milne, manager of Wrights Bush Dairy Factory. Bella Milne, aged nine, her daughter. Jean Somerville, her sister-in-law > 00? * Pilose who escaped were Frank lifilne, the driver of the ear, Lily Milne and J. Taylor, dairy factory assistant. The family was returning i\ome after shopping in the city, and the ea* was proceeding at a slow .speed across the bridge, when a wheel slid oft' the runner on the decking, causing the car to skid. It struck the right side lightly, but evidently the woodwork was rotten. for it snapped and the car plunged over, sliding down a steep bauk into •deep water. The three survivors got •clear and reached land with difficulty, and summoned aid. - Strenuous efforts were made to lift *the car, but it was three this morning before the bodies were recovered. Milne is an experienced driver and knows the road well. He states the tragedy could not have happened if the railing had been sound. He states: "I don't know how I got -put of the car. I .think I must have been jerked backwards through the window. "For a moment I thought I could pull some of the others out, for the car seemed to stay near the edge. "Then the current caught it and swept it further out and into deeper water.":