CROSSING ACCIDENT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21508, 22 November 1939, Page 6

CROSSING ACCIDENT

DRIVER OF LORRY KILLED By Telegraph —Press Association HAMILTON, November 21. Terrible injuries, from which he died about two hours after admission to hospital, were received by the driver of a cream lorry when le vehicle was involved in a collision with a goc' > train on the Pi?.ko crossing, near Morrinsville, this morning. The lorry was lifted bodily on to the front of the engine and carried for 50 yards before being dashed to pieces on the side ol the track. The victim was Samuel Thompson aged 51, married, of Waihou, a lorry driver, employed by Mr F. J. Smethurst, contractor, of Waihou. When the accident occurred, T 1 pson was travellin to a diary factory ai. Morrinsville with a load of cream. A passenger train had just passed over the crossing and was being followed by a cattle train when the lorry approached the line. The engine caught the vehicle on its side and carried It over the cattle stop, and in the process the driver was thrown out of the cab.

Accordh ~ to the police, there were hadly two pieces of wood from the damaged lorry measuring more tha:: two feet in length, r.hile the chassis was a tangled heap.