SHOCKING MOTOR ACCIDENT.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 9, 4 October 1937, Page 3

SHOCKING MOTOR ACCIDENT.

SIX LIVES LOST A DANGEROUS BEND. AUCKLAND, Last night. Suffering from grave injuries and trapped in the vehicle for more than three hours, six persons lost their lives” when a large sedan motor car left the road and somersaulted 30 feet into a stream alongside the Waingaro road, about 13 miles from Xgaruawahia, shortly after 5 o’clock on Saturday afternoon. The victims were a man and his wife and their child and another elderly man and his two grandchildren who were returning to their homes at Glen Afton after visiting Waingaro Springs.

The victims were: — WILLIAM HENRY COLE, aged 51, miner, Glen Afton. MRS NELLIE COLE, his wife, aged 41. IRENE NELLIE COLE, their daughter. aged 11. JOHN NICHOLSON ADAMS, aged G 6, miner, Glen Afton. THELMA DELLA WAY, aged 9. BETTIE DELLA WAY, aged 6. The last-mentioned girls were daughters of Mr F. G. Dellaway, miner, Glen Afton, and grandchildren of Mr Adams.

The accident occurred at a sharp bend on the winding Waingaro road. When approaching the corner Cole, who was driving the car, swung sharply outward to avoid a collision with another vehicle proceeding in the opposite direction and driven by Colin Kenneth Smith, Te Akau. Smith had pulled his own ear to the bank on the left-hand side of the road and had stopped. Cole’s car became out of control in attempting to gain a safe position on the other side of the road. As a result of this Cole’s ear left the road and plunged over a steep hank of 30 feet to the Waingaro stream, crashing through thick undergrowth and somersaulting several times before coming to rest in six feet of water, where it was almost completely submerged.

Valiant efforts were made to rescue the occupants, but they were found to be dead. Over GO miners and others joined in the rescue efforts.

At the inquest to-day the Coroner, Mr F. Harris, strongly crticised the condition of the road, which was described as being a death trap. He returned a verdict that the deaths were accidental. The same corner was the scene of ;yi accident of a similar nature on August 23rd, 1936, when two Glen Afton miners, John Stevens, aged 62, and William Cole, aged 26, son of William Henry Cole, who was killed on Saturday, last their lives.