MOTOR-CAR FATALITIES

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8315, 13 May 1905, Page 4

MOTOR-CAR FATALITIES

CAR FALLS OVER A STEEP

EMBANKMENT.

Earl- Percy, Urider-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and heir to' the dukedom of Northumberland, had a marvellous escape from death while motoring near Sandhurst, Kent. '

His car fell over a steep embankment and crashed into a carrier's cart. Lord,! Percy escaped with a shaking, and his chauffeur only sustained a few k bruises. The car was not much injured, and the journey was continued. In another motor car accident, which happened in Kingsland Road, a costermonger's daughter met her death, and her sister was severely injured. The children, Winifred Vaughan, aged nine, and Harriet, aged thirteen, were playing in the. road, and started to follow a couple of boys who were being taken to the police station. A big car going towards the city at a high speed knocked both of them down and went on.

A policeman started in pursuit of the car, but the driver Avent some distance before he, stopped, owing, it was said, to the steering gear being defective. The girls were picked up, badly cut ,tnd bleeding, and taken to a neighbouring surgery. Harriet, whose face and hands were cut, had her wounds dressed, and was sent home, but he* sister, who was suffering from shoVsk and internal injuries, was taken to St Bartholomew's Hospital, where she died.' An ostler's four-year-old son, Francis Edwaud Prior, met his death in an almost similar fashion.

Mr George Pauling, a Westminster contractor, was driving a 20 horsepower car with a party of friends down Welwyn Hill. To avoid running over a; little girl who was crossing the road, Mr Pauling wheeled his car sharply to the left, and close up to a bank on which twenty children stood. The mudguard of the car struck the girl, knocking her down. At the same moment the lamp struck the boy Prior and a girl named Annie Hipgrove. She escaped lightly, but the other girl, Rachel Rothenberg, now lies in the hospital in a dangerous condition. The boy died within an hour of the accident.

The iury at the inquest found that death was _ accidental, but the owner was not to blame, and that he deserved praise for his efforts for the children. His solicitor expressed deep regret, and promised compensation to parents.