WOMAN’S DEATH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20359, 17 July 1934, Page 5

WOMAN’S DEATH.

Thrown Out of Car Into Gutter. FATAL COLLISION IN CITY. Mrs Mary Sproule Gantley, aged twenty-eight a cook at the Grosvenor Hotel, was killed at 6.30 last evening in a motor collision at the intersection of Colombo and St Asaph Streets. She was a passenger in a motortruck driven by John Valmar Windleborn, of Holmes’ Boarding House, Manchester Street. The vehicle was going east along St Asaph Street. A closed car, driven by Francis Stokes Board, of Auckland, but temporarily a resident of 96, St James Avenue. Papanui, came south down Colombo Street, and the two vehicles collided. The truck was swung round and sent across the gutter on to the footpath on the left-hand side of the intersection. The car also was slewed round, coming to a stop on the footpath. Mrs Gantley was thrown out of the truck’s open cab and struck her head heavily on the concrete gutter-edge, and the car passed over her. When picked up, she was bleeding from severe head injuries. She must have died almost immediately, for St John Ambulance attendants, at the scene of the accident within five minutes, found her dead. The body was taken to the Christchurch Hospital. Neither Mr Windleborn nor Mr Board was injured, although they were badly shaken. The rear of the truck and the front of the car were extensively damaged. Bad visibility is blamed as a contributory factor to the accident, as rain was falling heavilv at the time.