Holiday Casualties

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 242, 3 January 1928, Page 9

Holiday Casualties

While watching the lions being fed at the Newtown Park Zoo, Wellington, on Sunday afternoon, W. H. Hind, aged 71, cabinetmaker, dropped dead.

Through getting his foot caught in a bolt in the shaft of a launch engine at Wellington, Walter King suffered a compound fracture of two toes of tne left foot.

Sheila Stewart, aged eight years, at Wellington, received severe injuries to her left ankle through its being caught in an iron hoop.

Vincent M. Cassin, a single man, aged 22, injured his left ankle through his motor-cycle colliding with a motorcar on the Hutt Road on Sunday morning.

On Monday, a Morrinsville lad. Westland Fairfax Ensor, aged 12 years, fell 50ft down a hillside at TQTaihi Beach and suffered severe cuts on the head, face and one shoulder, also concussion of the brain. He was removed to the Waihi Hospital. the boy had climbed the hill in order to obtain a better view of sports which were in progress on the beach. In falling he struck his head upon a stone embedded in the sand.

Owing to a thick fog in which it was impossible to see an approaching vehicle until a few yards distant, the accident, a head-on collision, took place outside Mr. Clarkin’s residence, when a car driven by Mr. David R. Kerr, Waitoa, met a car driven byGeorge Turner, aged 21, of Hamilton East.

A passenger in Turner’s car, Brenda Mills, aged 22, was thrown heavily forward by the impact and received painful injuries to the face, necessitating the insertion of several stitches. Neither vehicle was badly damaged.

An unusual .accident, in which all concerned had a remarkable escape from serious injury, occurred at Frankton on Sunday, New Year’s Day.

Lawrence Mawhinney, of Morrinsville, was riding a motor-cycle, with side-car attached, containing two passengers, along High Street and endeavoured to turn into Commerce Street, but was unable to negotiate the corner.

The motor-cycle continued straight on and crashed into the base of a plate-glass window in the Frankton Supply Stores. None of the motorcycle passengers was hurt, but two young boys standing underneath the window narrowly escaped being struck. One, Francis O. Turner, was injured by falling glass. He received severe cuts about the face and was admitted to the Waikato Hospital.

Mrs. Cockhead and her three children were in the van, which was extensively damaged. The children suffered cuts and bruises.

At 4 p.m. on Saturday a collision occurred at the corner of Grey Street and Boundary Road between a motorvan driven by Charles Cockhead and a car driven by Ernest McDonald, of Howden Road.

A fall on a Kauangaroa farm property on Sunday ended in a fractured thigh for George "Wilson, 67 years of age. The injured man, who is a contract worker, was removed to the Wanganui Hospital.

Mrs. Mary Bloor, a widow, aged 65, died at the Dannevirke Hospital last night as the result of injuries received in an accident yesterday. She was driving in a gig with her daughter, Mrs. Hill, when the - horsey in turning a bend in Raumati Road, took fright at a stationary motor-car and overturned the vehicle.

Serious injuries were received by Alfred Brown, aged 21, hairdresser, from a fall from a motor-cycle early on Sunday morning, near Wanganui. He was admitted to the hospital with a fractured skull and suffering concussion. His condition is described as critical. It is presumed that the injured cyclist’s machine skidded on loose metal.

Fatal consequences attended an accident to Edward William Head, aged 18, resident of Turakina, on Tuesday evening last week. Deceased and his cousin returned home after a shooting expedition, on which they used a repeating pearifle. They extracted as they thought all the bullets from the weapon. One. however, remained and was discharged during cleaning operations, Head receiving the bullet in the abdomen. He was removed in an ambulance to the Wanganui Hospital, where he was operated on. He died on Sunday afternoon.