NARROW ESCAPE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 4, 6 January 1939, Page 9

NARROW ESCAPE

CAR'S PLUNGE INTO RIVER NEW PLYMOUTH, Jan. 4. Marooned on the top of a car submerged in the Awakino River, four adults and a small girl waved frantically to attract the attention of passing motorists near Mahoenui on Monday evening. Dusk was falling. Had it been a few minutes later it would have been too dark for them to be seen and rescued with the aid of a rope. Swept away by the fast-flowing river, Mr. H. Dewsnap, of Pio Pio, was discovered clinging to a snag and up to his neck in water. He could not have kept his grip much longer, he said, after being brought ashore. When the car, a modern sedan, somersaulted twice down a 30-foot bank into eight or nine feet of water Mr. and Mrs. Dewsnap, three adults and a child escaped through the windows and floated to the surface. Mr. Dewsnap was swept downstream about two chains until he grasped a snag, but the others clambered to the top of the car. 'which was right side up, and stood there knee-deep in swirling water. Rescued with a Rope It was in that predicament that the family were found by Messrs. Anderson and Skinner, who were motoring to Wellington. Losing no time, they set to work with a rope and accomplished the difficult rescue of the whole party. Mr. and Mrs. Dewsnap and family were returning to Pio Pio after spending the day at New P'ymcuth. Opposite Mr. F. J. Soler’s farm a red flag warned motorists of a rubble slip, and it was at that point that the accident occurred. The car swerved into the bank on the inner side of the road, turned across the highway and fell into the river. “Although most of us could swim, the current was too swift for us to do anything but go the way the water carried i«,” said Mr. Dewsnap when relating his experience. Fortunately, he added, he and his family had not been long in their predicament when the rescuing motorists arrived on the scene.