FATAL BUS SMASH

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1927, Page 11

FATAL BUS SMASH

CRASH ON KAIWARRA HILL WOMAN DIES IN HOSPITAL TWO SERIOUSLY INJURED WHEEL SLIPS FROM HAND By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. An elderly woman was fatally injured, two others were seriously injured, and several others suffered minor hurts when one of the Bell Bus Company’s buses, bound from Khandallah to the city, crashed into a telegraph pole a few hundred yards on the northern side, of the Kaiwarra railway bridge just before noon to-day. The dead woman is Annie Eleanor Watson, of 39 Grove Road, Kelburn. She suffered terrible injuries and died within half an hour of her admission to the hospital. Mrs. Watson was the widow of Captain D. J. Watson. Miss Gertie Bradley, of Station Road, Khandallah, and Mrs. Frazer, of Awarua Street, Ngaio, were taken to the hospital. They are in a serious condition, but their injuries are described as not critical, Mrs. Harry Bradshaw, aged 40, of York Avenue, Khandallah, and Mrs. Stevens, aged 30, of Ranui Terrace, Khandallah, were among those who were less seriously injured. Mrs. Grace Clothier, of Ottawa Road, Ngaio, was admitted to the hospital at 3 p.m. with a broken wrist. The other victims of the accident, after being cared for at the houses of some railwaymen living near the scene of the mishap, were able to return to their homes. All the occupants of the bus, about a dozen women, were hurled out on to the footpath amidst a shower of broken glass and splintered wood that covered the road for a radius of many yards. Seats and fittings were twisted into an almost unrecognisable mass and some remarkable escapes from more serious injuries were experienced. Such waA the force of the impact that the telegraph post witli which tlie vehicle collided was snapped near the top and shifted some inches out of its position.

The bus left the bitumen about 30 yards back and struck the pole first with the front right-hand mudguard. The full force of the impact, however, was received near the first seat inside the door, on which it is understood, Mrs Watson was sitting.

The pole tore the side out of the bus. which came to a stop with the wheels on the footpath in its own length.

In a statement made to Patrol Constable Morrison, the driver, John O’Callaghan, said the steering wheel slipped from his hand. O’Callaghan received a few abrasions.

An examination of the bus after, the accident showed that the steering gear was not defective.