TWO GIRLS KILLED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 955, 27 December 1933, Page 5

TWO GIRLS KILLED.

Swept Off Small Bridge by Train. | FATALITY AFTER BATHING. a j Per Press Association, d WANGANUI, December 26. Two girls, Frances Mason, of Kaka-; riki, aged eleven years, and Molly Camplin,' of Kiwitea, four years, lost ,£ their lives on the railway bridge near Kakariki, thirty-seven miles south of Wanganui, this morning. They had been bathing and, ap- ? | parently to take a short cut, climbed ’ | on a small bridge spanning a stream ’ which joins the Rangitikei River, when ! the north-bound daylight limited exI press swung round a bend from a cuth j ting and caught the unfortunate pair a 1 Their mangled bodies afterwards e j were recovered from the stream below p j The driver of the express, when the a train rounded the bend, was horrified e ' to see the children on the bridge ahead. ! ; He applied the brakes in an effort to j f avert what happened, but the distance j was too short in which to accomplish ; ° the task a I Frances Mason was the daughter of ! v! Mr T. Mason, Kakariki, and Molly ' 1 j Camplin was the daughter of Mr J. L. , '' | Camplin, Waituna. The children were i e ; The bridge, like many other short ! railway structures of this type, was undecked and was not used for pedesg trian traffic of any kind. It was about g twenty feet above the stream and the e children had no hope of escape with >* the train coming on them so suddenly unless they attempted to jump to the n ground below. They were unable to r save themselves and met with instantaneous death.