LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1930, Page 7

LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

DEATH OF A LORRY DRIVER, Otaki, July 22. . The lengthy list of fatal railway crossing accidents was added to to-day when, as the result of a collision between the north-bound New Plymouth express and a motor-lorry, John Stewart received injuries which proved fatal. Mr. Stewart was aged 29 and a labourer, of Otaki. He was driving a motorlorry for his brother-in-law at about 11.30 a.m., and. was going over the railway line at Fraser’s-crossing, nine miles south of Otaki, when the north-bound New Plymouth express crashed into the lorry broadside on, and carried it 50 feet before depositing it upside down, past the cattle stops. Mr. Stewart’s head, face and chest were badly cut and crushed, and both his arms were broken. The bodywork of the lorry was ruined while the cowcatcher of the train was also damaged. Mr. Stewart was conveyed to the Otaki Hospital, by a private car, and succumbed to his injuries shortly after his arrival. The crossing where the accident occurred is not a dangerous one, vision being unobscured for approximately one mile on the south and half a mile on the north. Deceased had lately been out of permanent employment, and leaves a widow and a few weeks’ old baby.