SPEED-BOAT RUNS AMOK

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 548, 28 December 1928, Page 14

SPEED-BOAT RUNS AMOK

STRANGE ACCIDENT AT RUSSELL MAN IN DINGHY INJURED (SUX'S Special Reporter.) RUSSELL, Thursday. A most extraordinary accident occurred this afternoon during the running of an outboard motorboat race at Russell. On rounding a mark Humbug, the most powerful boat in the race, threw its driver L. Stericker overboard. The boat, which was doing 35 miles an hour, careered on in circles round the mark while the driver was swimming in the water to the safety of the markboat.. Humbug circled the mark no fewer than live times in ever-widening circles. In its course the boat skimmed past the driver, narrowly missing his head with its fin. A man .who was rowing a dinghy near the course failed to notice the rushing boat which charged straight at the dinghy, striking it and leaping over its occupant. In doing so the tin cut his face and the Humbug came over the boat again and suddenly came to rest. The man in the dinghy was thought to have suffered concussion and is being attended by a doctor. A large crowd of spectators was horror-stricken when the speedboat leaped over the dinghy and it was at first feared the man had been killed. Mr. Stericker crawled into the markboat unharmed, but the other man may have to go to hospital.