STOLEN CAR HITS AN EXPRESS TRAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 65, 18 March 1931, Page 7

STOLEN CAR HITS AN EXPRESS TRAIN.

MAN BEHAVES IN VERY MYSTERIOUS MANNER. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, March 17. About an hour and a haafter it had been stolen from the city this afternoon a motor-car collided at a crossing north of Paekakariki with the south bound express from New Plymouth. An occupant of the car disappeared over a nearby hill immediately after the accident but returned later, saying that he was one of three in the car and had been given a lift. The affair was described as a “bit of a mystery” by a Paekakariki resident. The collision occurred at M’Kay’s crossing, north of Paekakariki, just after 5 p.m. The car struck the second coach on the train. When the train had come to a standstill its crew returned to find that a man had got out of the car before the railwaymen reached it and went off in another direction without waiting to make any explanation. The front of the car was badly damaged. The train resumed its journey and the damaged carriage was put off at Paekakariki. Subsequently the railway authorities learned that a man had returned to Paekakariki about an hour later, given his name and said that he had been given a lift by two other people in the car. Later still it was reported to the railway that the car had the same description and number as a car belonging to Mr William Howard Tilley, of Wellington, which had been stolen from Courtenay Place. It was understood at Paekakariki this evening that the only eye witness of the accident, a small boy, had seen only one person in the car, who had disappeared over the hill. The man left for Wellington on a train which arrived late to-night, and is understood to have been met by detectives at Johnsonville.