BUS RUNS LOOSE IN ALBERT STREET

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 531, 7 December 1928, Page 16

BUS RUNS LOOSE IN ALBERT STREET

! HITS CAR AND POST CROWD’S NARROW ESCAPE Empty of passengers and without a driver a large motor-bus parked in Albert Street last evening gently moved oft' of its own accord. It crossed Customs Street, strictly obeying tho traffic regulations, ran on to the footpath lower down, hit tho brick wall of a garage, came back, brushed away a car at the kerbside, crashed into a telegraph pole and stopped. On the other side of the pole was another bus into which people were climbing. The bus whs half-full of passengers and there was a crowd waiting to get in between the pole and the door of the bus. Only tlie pole saved them from being knocked down by the runaway. _ The bus was owned by Mr. L. J. Iveys, of St. Heliers, and was used on the run from the city to St. Heliers and Kohimarama. It had been left outside the parcel post office by its driver. Mr. L. Duncan, about 150yds up the slope from Customs Street. For some reason the brakes eased off and the bus started down the hill. Until it was past Customs Street it steered a fairly straight course and if it had not swerved when it did it would almost certainly have plunged into the harbour on top of the launches moored under the wall. The car, which was hit, was a taxi and was owned by Mr. J. Hampton. The mudguards on one side and the bodywork were fairly badly damaged. The bus had the windscreen and a few windows broken, but otherwise was almost undamaged. The telegraph pole was pushed to one side and the wires were snapped so that they hung down on to the pavement.