TRAPPED IN FLAMES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 191, 14 August 1931, Page 5

TRAPPED IN FLAMES

FOUR BURNED TO DEATH BLAZING MOTOR-CAR TRAGEDY FOLLOWS COLLISION. Nine people were involved in a head' on collision between two motor-cars on the Watford by-pass road, near Elstree, England, early on the morning of June 28. The cars became locked together, one of them burst into flames, and two men and a woman were burned to death. A girl was so badly burned that she died in hospital; and three girls —one in white satin pyjamas—and a man, also wearing white satin pyjamas, were injured. One man escaped unhurt. The girl who died in hospital was Miss Sybil Dixon, aged 19. She was taken to a hospital, but survived only two hours. The bodies of the three other dead people were so badly charred that identification was difficult. The woman was unknown. One of the men was Mr. Charles Brown, of Bolton Lancashire, a medical student at Middlesex Hospital, the son of Mr. Charles Brown, managing director of W. H. and J. Wood, tobacco manufacturers, of Preston, and the other is believed to be Air. Milton Green, of Brooklyn, New York, who was also studying at the Middlesex Hospital. The four persons taken to hospital were Mr. Tokvickhiro Gomei, of the Tokiwa Hotel, Ilolborn; Miss Wendy Matthews, aged 23, of Kensington; Miss Betty Rogers, of Maida Vale; and Miss Molly Mitchell, of Maida Vale. Mr. Green and Mr. Brown and Miss Dixon and the other dead woman were in one of the cars, a “Baby” Austin. Two Passengers in Pyjamas. The other car, a larger touring type, was occupied by Air. Alegata, of Kensington, who was driving, and Air. Gomei, both Japanese, and three girls. One of the girls was wearing wnite satin pyjamas, and one of the men was similarly clad. The cars met head-on. A few seconds later the smaller car burst into flames, and although other motorists and passengers from a motor-omnibus tried desparately to free the four people trapped inside the tangied wreckage, they were driven back by the flames. Mrs. Gough, who lives about 200yds. from the scene, said: — “When we got to the cars it was impossible to get near them because of the heat and the flames. Three of the people trapped inside the small car seemed to be dead, but the other girl was still alive. One of the Japanese men had his hand burned in trying to i pull her clear.” I Airs. Gough’s two daughters, who | were among the passengers in the om- | nibus, also helped in the rescue ati tempts. “Just as we got there,’’ said Miss i Rebecca Gough, “the girl, who was : apparently Miss Dixon, rolled clear of ! the wreckage. All her clothes had i been burned off, but she was still con- | scions. ■ “*1 am dying,’ she cried to me. | ‘Mother, I am dying.’ “I went forward to place my coat over her body and she moaned, ‘Are you going to let me die?’ She was bleeding from a head wound. Through the

leaping flames I could see two people hanging out of windows of the blazing baby car. I could hear terrible cries coming from them, but we could do nothing. Clothes Burned off Body. “One of the girls from the larger car said to me, ‘I am disfigured for life. Aly face is ruined.’ She had a cut on her face. I told her she was all right.” Air. B. J. Gough said the road was a sheet of flames, and no vehicle could pass in either direction. The blazing cars lit up the whole roadway for miles. Air. W. Dealer, a motor-coach driver, said: “As I jumped from my driving seat I saw a man stagger from behind the small rar. His clothes were comp erely burned off, and as I turned a fire extinguisher on him he collapsed and robed on to the side of the road. We could see another man inside the saloon. He was leaning over the steering wheel in a mass of flame, but it was impossible to do anything for him Mr. S. Turner, the conductor of the coach, said he pulled one woman from the saloon car. “She was a mass of flames.” he said, “and shrieking ‘Can’t you see lam burning? Let me die; let- me die.’ I did the best I could with a fire extinguisher, but she collapsed in the middle of the road. I saw two others—a man and a woman —stagger from behind one of the cars in flames.”