SOMERSAULT BY MOTOR

Taranaki Daily News, 27 October 1932, Page 4

SOMERSAULT BY MOTOR

TWO MEN’S LUCKY ESCAPE SKID IN AVOIDING COLLISION. ACCIDENT AT AN INTERSECTION. Two young men had a miraculous w cape from death or serious injury when, skidding into the kerb at the corner of Dawson and Vivian Streets, New Plymouth, at 11.15 last night, their 3-seater roadster car turned a somersault and came to rest against a stone wall with its wheels in the air. The two occupants struggled from the wreckage uninjured except for abrasions on the hands. The vehicle, driven by Mr. Leslie Joseph Tracey, farm hand, Huinga, who had as a passenger Mr. Arthur R. Simmons, Westown, was proceeding along Vivian Street to the west and approached the Dawson Street intersection at the same time as Mr. R. A. Bent, driving south up Dawson Street. Mr. Bent applied the brakes and pulled up. Mr. Tracey swerved to his left in a wide arc, avoided the other ear and skidded into the Dawson Street kerb a few feet from a telegraph post. The car somersaulted with a crash and landed upside-down on the footpath. The hood was crinkled like a concertina and the windshield was flattened inwards, the glass being smashed to fragments. The steering wheel was forced into the body of the car. It seemed hardly possible the occupants could be uninjured until the two squeezed through a small gap among the benzine and glass splinters. The radiator was buckled, one headlight was smashed, the mudguards’were crumpled and the benzine tank ruptured. Oil from the crankcase had dripped liberally over the upturned car, which was removed by a breakdown waggon. Mr. Simmons’ cuts were bandaged by Mr. G. Pauli, and he was able to proceed home. Mr. Tracey had been taking Mr. Simmons to Westown before returning to Huinga. Mr. Bent, who was accompanied by his son, was uninjured and his car untouched. The intersection at which the accident occurred is a dangerous one, many skid tnarks testifying to narrow escapes. Dawson Street is the main thoroughfare to Frankleigh Park and carries a large amount of Westown and Public Hospital traffic.