ROAD TRAGEDIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20925, 3 January 1938, Page 8

ROAD TRAGEDIES

YOUNG MAORI KILLED TRUCK CRASHES INTO BANK By Telegraph—Press Association ROTORUA, January 2. Edward Fleming, a Maori, aged 20, of Te Puke, was killed on New Year’s Eve when the motor truck in which he was a passenger crashed into a bank and capsized about four miles from Ngongotaha township. Four other passengers in the truck received slight injuries. The party was proceeding to Rotorua from Te Puke to take part in the New Year celebrations. Apparently after passing another vehicle the truck skidded in loose metal and crashed into the bank and capsized. The driver, George Dinsdale, had two passengers with him in the cab and the remainder were on the rear of the vehicle. Those in the cab were imprisoned in the wreckage and the remainder thrown off into the roadway, where Fleming was found unconscious. He died shortly after his admission to hospital.

A “HIT AND RUN” VICTIM By Telegraph—Press Association AUCKLAND. January 2. Within a quarter of an hour of the expiration of the old year, a motorist passing the intersection of Manukau Road and Silver Road noticed the body of a man lying on the road within a few feet of the tram tracks, and on investigating found the man was dead. He is believed to be the victim of a “hit and run” motorist. The St. John Ambulance was immediatelysummoned, but the man was obviously dead, having suffered a severe head injury and heavy loss of blood. The victim was Robert Kerr, a visitor from Pukemiro. By a strange irony of fate Kerr had inspected the same ambulance in the morning that had been summoned near midnight to convey him to the Auckland Hospital. He was secretary of the Pukemiro Medical Association, and in that capacity had been shown round the St. John Ambulance station and had inspected the equipment there on Friday morning. He was a miner, aged about 65.

WOMAN FATALLY INJURED By Telegraph—Press Association AUCKLAND, December 31. Fatal injuries were suffered this morning by Mrs Janet Annie Holiday when, after stepping from the kerb at Greenwood’s corner, Epsom, she was struck by a motor car and suffered extensive head injuries. She was dead when the ambulance arrvied. CYCLISTS SERIOUSLY HURT By Telegraph—Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, January 2. Two cyclists were seriously injured on New Year’s Day. Maurice Lewis, aged 16, of 596 Avonside Drive, ran into a motor car at the corner of Clarence and Riccarton Roads early in the afternoon, and was admitted to the Christchurch Public Hospital suffering from head and chest injuries. His condition this evening was serious. Head injuries, concussion and a fractured leg were suffered by William O’Callaghan, aged 38, of 73 Johns Road, Belfast, when his bicycle was struck by a motor car on the Main North Road near the Belfast School on Saturday morning. His condition is serious.

LACERATIONS AND CONCUSSION By Telegraph—Press Association WESTPORT, January 1. Rex Wimsett, Westport manager of Griffen and Smith, was admitted to the Buller Hospital early this morning suffering a lacerated head and severe concussion as a result of a collision between the car he was driving, accompanied by Mrs Wimsett, and a car driven by Owen Prince. The accident happened at the intersection of Peel and Wakefield Streets. Both cars were badly damaged. Mrs Wimsett escaped with a severe shaking and slight shock. Prince was not injured. MOTOR-CYCLIST KILLED By Telegraph—Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, January 2. A motor-cyclist, Elmsly Norman Williams, aged 27, died in the Public Hospital to-day as a result of severe head injuries suffered in a collision with a motor car in Sawyers Arms Road on Friday afternoon. Williams, who resides at Moana, West Coast, had been staying with relatives in Christchurch. He was returning from the Waimakariii, travelling south along Sawyers Arms Road on a motor cycle when he collided with a motor car travelling west. The car was driven by Frank Joseph Novak, of 351 Devon Street East, New Plymouth.