TWO KILLED IN CAR SMASH

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1929, Page 13

TWO KILLED IN CAR SMASH

MACHINE FALLS OVER BANK TRAGEDY NEAR TONGAPORUTU. OPUNAKE MAN AND HOUSEKEEPER, DISCOVERY BY PASSING DRIVER. Two persons were killed in a motor smaah which occurred on the Main North Road, about five miles north of Tongaporutu, during Friday night or in the early hours of. Saturday morning. A sedan car occupied by two people plunged off the road, down about 40 yards of a precipitous slope and into a stream. The victims have been identified as:— Mrs. Eileen Herdman, aged about 30, k daughter of Mr. G. W. Browne, Vcgeltown, and housekeeper to W. H. W. Tippins. William Henry W. Tippins, aged 41, Oaonui, near Opunake. Mr. Tippins, it is understood, was driving to Auckland, but so far it has not been ascertained when he left Oaonui. It is believed the accident Occurred between 6.30 and 7 on Saturday morning. The discovery of the tragedy was made shortly after 7.30 a.m. on Saturday by Mr. Horace Todd of Ropiha Street, Fitzroy. While driving to ~ New Plymouth from Awakino he observed a red light in the bed of the Te Kawa stream, about 100 yards above the bridge. He pulled up and went back and at first noticed a screwdriver, a jack and then a woman’s shoe. A little further down the bank he found the overturned car partially submerged in about four feet of water. The two occupants were dead. Mr. Duncan Riddell, Public Works foreman, Tongaporutu, arrived on the scene soon afterwards. Immediately he drove on to Mokau in his lorry where he informed Constable J. Cantion, who picked up District Nurse Harris and hastened to the scene. By 9 o’clock a considerable number of helpers had assembled, but it was not without difficulty that the bodies were removed.

WOMAN APPARENTLY DROWNED. The immediate cause of death in the case of Mrs. Herdman appeared to have been drowning, but as Mr. Tippins had a severe wound on his forehead it is probable that he was dead by the time the car had reached the bottom of the embankment. Mrs. Herdman had received a cut on the ankle but otherwise no injury was apparent. Constable Cantion concluded that they must have been stunned by the fall, otherwise they would have been able to escape through the doors on the right hand side of the car as they were above water

The reason why the car left the road is a mystery. Mr. Riddell made a careful examination of the tyre marks which at the time were clearly defined on the wet surface. The road turns to the left at the top of the descent to the stream and about 100 yards further on sweeps to the right, making an "s” between the top of the hill and the bridge. Mr. Riddell said the car turned the first bend on its correct side (away from the declivity). After rounding the bend the tyre marks showed in the clay to the left of the tarred surface; then they returned to the latter at a safe angle. A few yards further on, where the road is straight between the two bends, the marks indicated severe application of the brakes and that with locked wheels the car skidded across the roadway to the right and turned over down the steep slope. The distance down the embankment to the stream is about 40 yards. The car cleared a long- patch of clay, crashed through the tops of two saplings and then cut a swaythe through a mass of tree ferns, flax and other growth. It came to rest in the stream, which was between four and five feet deep, with the radiator pointing upstream or opposite to its direction before leaving the road. It was almost upside down with the right-hand running board highest out of the water. Only the glass of the right-hand doors, which were above water, was smashed. Though it was difficult to examine the car very accurately the damage is less than might be expected after so terrible a descent.

VERDICT AT INQUEST.

Constable Cantion was informed that a closed car was seen going north through Tongaporutu at 6.30 a.m. Mr. Todd did not pass a car between Awakino and Te Kawau, and both he and Mr. Riddell observed that there were no tyre marks to the north of the scene of the accident.

Mr. Tippins’ watch had stopped at 7.25, but whether that was on Saturday morning or on the previous night is not known definitely. When Mr. Todd discovered the car the engine was quite cold. With these facts in mind it is believed the approximate time of the tragedy may be fixed. The car is a blue Plymouth sedan bearing the number 65-886.

Mr. Tippins was identified by an inscription on his watch and on a medal awarded him by the Jersey Cattle Breedera’ Association of New Zealand in 1918. Among the contents of a' suitcase were two letters addressed “Mrs. E. Herdman, c/o W. H. Tippins, Oaonui.” The fatality occurred close to the ver}’ historic Te Kawau island pa which stands at the mouth of the stream. At the inquest which was held before the acting-coroner, Mr. S. Whitehead, at Mokau yesterday afternoon, a verdict of accidental death was returned by a jury of four. The jurymen were Messrs. F. G. Northern (foreman), A. Y. Sampson, H. P. Hansen and H. B. Lynch. Evidence was given by Benjamin Tippins, father of Tippins, G. W. Browne, father of Mrs. Herdman, Duncan Riddell, the district nurse, Miss Harris, and Constable Cantion. The bodies were removed to the mortuary at New Plymouth.