DANGEROUS QUICKSANDS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1934, Page 9

DANGEROUS QUICKSANDS

MOTOR-CARS ENGULFED. SYDNEY MAN’S EXPERIENCE. Sydney, Jan. 12. A remarkable story of a last-minute escape from a car that was rapidly sinking in quicksands was related yesterday by Mr. H. Foster, a well-known Sydney r. Mr. Foster said he left Sydney last Saturday on a holiday tour of the southern districts. When 19 miles from Cooma, where the winding road crosses a creek called The Willows, he found difficulty in negotiating the sandy bed of the creek. Noticing that one side of the car appeared considerably lower than the other, he jumped out of the car to ascertain the cause, and was horrified to find that his feet sank immediately into the sand. The car was settling down rapidly, so he ploughed through the quicksands to j;he rear door and attempted to force it open, so as to release his wife, who was occupying the back seat; but the vehicle had sunk so far down that the sand pressed against the bottom of the door and it could not be opened. Shouting a warning to his wife, Mr. Foster made his way with difficulty to the back of the car, and told her to smash the rear window with a heavy article from the luggage carried in the car.

By this time, Mr. Foster said, the sand covered the mudguards of the car, and Mrs. Foster had barely time enough to break the window and force her way through the opening. She and her husband then struggled through the sand to. the bank of the creek, and as they turned to see what was happening to the car they were amazed to observe that the sand had risen past the window, and in a few seconds the vehicle was completely engulfed.

Mr. and Mrs. Foster were given succour at Billingra homestead, which is near the crossing, and they returned to Sydney on Monday. In consequence of his immersion in the sand, which contained decaying ’and poisonous matter, Mr. Foster suffered poisoning of the skin of both legs, and his condition became so bad that on Wednesday night he was compelled to seek medical attention.

Mr. Foster added that he had been informed that a few days before his experience a theatrical party had lost a motor-car and the whole of their luggage, but that the homestead people, with the use of a tractor, had subsequently recovered both motor-cars from the quicksands.