CARS CRASH NEAR BRIDGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17705, 27 November 1925, Page 1

CARS CRASH NEAR BRIDGE.

SERIOUS ACCIDENT IN STANMORE ROAD. LIMOUSINE WRECKED: SOME NARROW ESCAPES. At about half-past eight this morning, in the worst motor smash that has ever occurred at the Stanmore Road Bridge, a Buick limousine belonging to Mr H. F. Stevens received damage to the extent of over £2OO. while an Overland 2-3-sea ter, the property of Mr L. MacKinnon, of Shirley Road, was badly knocked about. None of the passengers was seriously hurt, though flying glass gave minor injuries. The Buick was coming along River Road, towards town, and the Overland was going north along Stanmore RoadMeeting on the tram-line in Stanmore Road, almost exactly in the. centre of the intersection, the cars, after the impact. apparently slewed right, round the Buick being hurled on to its side, striking a telegraph pole with the back of the roof as it toppled over. The Overland came to a halt facing River Read towards the city. Aroused by the crash of the collision. a crowd of people residing in the vicinity quickly gathered, and a remarkable sight met their eyes. The big limousine was a complete wreck. Turned over on its right side, with the back up against one of the abutments of the bridge, it was a sorry spectacle. The chassis was bent, and ail the ride panels on the right side, where the Overiand struck, were smashed and bent. Every pane of glass was shattered. the muffler was broken, and the tv re was torn oft one of the rear wheels. Among the broken glass that, strewed the roadway ran streams of oil and petrol. The smaller Overland looked pathetic, sunk down on its bent front axle, with bent chassis, and radiator pushed back on to the broken engine- , , A skid-mark left by one car stretched from the point of impact for nearly forty feet down Stanmore Road. It seems remarkable under the circumstances that none of the occupants of the cars were badly injured. In the iimousine were Mr Stevens, his son. and two little girls, one of them his daughter. Mr MacKinnon was the only person in the other car. Mr Stevens’s sen was driving the limousine, and he and his father and Mr MacKinnon were cut about the face and hands by glass splinters. Shortly after the accident, a delivery van belonging to Mr Stevens, who is a wholesale druggist, arrived, and the driver removed the fittings of the car, in order to forestall possible souvenir hunters. Tt was later attempted to r'ght the limousine, but the car could not stand on its wheels.