Saved His Hat but Lost Steering Wheel

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 805, 28 October 1929, Page 1

Saved His Hat but Lost Steering Wheel

ERROR OF JUDGMENT TWO CHINAMEN INJURED His hat blown off by a sudden gust of wind, the Chinese driver of a fruiterer’s delivery van took his attention from driving this afternoon for a second that was just time to allow the van to veer off the road and crash with teriffic force into a telegraph pole. Both the driver and his companion were removed to the hospital, though they are believed to be suffering from comparatively minor injuries. The van was a total wreck. rpHE names of the men are Wai Poi, aged 28, the driver, and 800 Fin, aged 22, his companion. The van was apparently being driven along Remuera Road away from the city. A gust of wind caught Wai Poi’a hat, and, clutching wildly at it, he released the steering wheel for a second or so with the result that he collided with a tramway pole at the side of the road. The accident took place midway between Ridings Road and Westbourne Road. Judging by the appearance of the wreckage the impact must have been most severe.

The van was quite new and fairly light. It is completely covered and displays in prominent letters the name of the owners —N. Fong Kee and Co., Fruiterers and Green-grocers. 13S Remuera Road. The van body was knocked completely off the chassis and rested at right angles to its former position. On the left side of the van, which tore along the post after the actual smash, the front wheel and mudguard were completely detached and lying on the footpath. The radiator, leaking rusty water, was about 12 feet in front of tho lorry, being hurled from its place at the time of the smash. There was no windscreen left and the dashboard and bonnet were lying beside the wreckage. A twisted mass of metal, the engine was partly forced from its seat. The force of the impact split, the 12 by 12 totara post, which was so furiously rammed, in two places about 10 feet above the ground, and, lower, where it was struck by the front of the car, there is a huge piece of the timber torn right away. Bananas and melons were strewn in profusion across the road and broken glass was everywhere, fragments having been hurled a surprising distance up the road. Wai Poi is believed to be suffering fom a lacerated head and 800 Fin has fractured his jaw in three places. Both men were taken to the public hospital in the ambulance. Half an hour after the accident, which occurred at 12.30 two repair wagons were on the spot, but it was a long task removing the shattered van and a longer one clearing up the wreckage that was scattered about the road.

RUSH TO HOSPITAL

“MY SON, HE ALL RIGHT?” Blissfully unconscious of the accident or the injury to his son, Wai'Poi’s father was sitting in a room behind his Parnell Road shop when the news of the smash was brought to him. The news of his son’s injury was somewhat indefinite and the agitated Chinese, hastily pulling on a coat, sprinted to the door, evidently intending to run somewhere, anywhere to be with his son, although he did Dot know where the young man had been taken. A Sun man, passing the shop in a taxi on his way back from the accident, saw the excited man as he dashed out and, recognising the shop as that from which the wrecked van had hailed, stopped. On being told that his son was not badly injured the father expressed broken thanks in a mixture of Chinese and English and demanded to be taken to the hospital immediately. Another Chinese followed him into the car, and, as the taxi sped through the Domain Drive, the two Chinese kept up a running fire of incoherent questions, urged the driver to break more speed records and w r riggled in their seats with painful excitement. They alighted at the hospital gates and were last seen by the reporter sprinting in the direction of the inquiry office. “My son, he all right?” called the father hopefully as he left the taxi.