TWO KILLED AND MANY INJURED IN ROAD ACCIDENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, 10 March 1947, Page 5

TWO KILLED AND MANY INJURED IN ROAD ACCIDENTS

FOUR RAILWAY BUSES INVOLVED IN TELESCOPING CRASH (P.A.) Wellington, March 9. A motor-cyclist received injuries from which he died when his machine was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry on the Taita Gorge Road about 5.30 p.m. on Saturday He was Denis George Hawkins, aged 25, a painter, of The Esplanade, Petone. I Hawkins was driving in the main traffic stream from the Trentham race meeting to Lower Hutt. When a car travelling from Upper < Hutt to Lower Hutt crashed into concrete posts at the bend in the main highway opposite St. Patrick's College, Silverstream. at 9.45 p m. on Saturday, the driver was killed instantly and two of the four passengers in the car were injured’. They were:— Killed: Raymond Anderson Waldon, aged 35, police constable, of Epuni Street. Lower Hutt.

Injured: Hugh Brown, employee of the Petone Borough Council, Petone, head injuries; Ann Reppen, student nurse, Silverstream Hospital, suspected fractured right shoulder. Both tlie injured were admitted to the Hutt. Hospital. Their condition is not serious. The accident occurred when Waldon's car met another car on a bend and skidded. Sixteen people among passengers of four Railway Road Services buses were treated for injuries following an accident on the Taita Gorge Road in which the buses were involved at about 6 p.m. on Saturday- Two of them were admitted to the Hutt Hospital. The buses, which were fully loaded, were telescoped into one another and the passengers given a terriffic jolt, but most escaped serious injury because they were cushioned by people around them. One woman went right through the windscreen of one bus without serious injury. Others were jammed against or caught underneath the upturned seats. Most ot the passengers received abrasions, bruises or small cuts The two people in hospital are Alfred Holmes, aged 71, ot 33 Crofton Rd., Wellington, head injuries; Francis O’Grady, a married woman, aged 41, of Lyn St. Wellington, abrasions and shock. Their condition is not seriousThe buses were travelling in line in i the traffic stream from the race meeting at Trentham when, about 150 yards past the turn-off to Stokes Valley, a car either pulled up or stalled In front of them. The first bus pulled up sharply in time to avoid a collision, as did the second and third buses, but the fourth vehicle smashed heavily into the bus in front of it. telescoping the whole line together. The fourth and third buses in the line were severely damaged, the second bus was knocked about to a lesser extent, and the first bus received minor damage, being able to drive off afterwards. It was the passengers of the last two buses who received the worst shaking.

TWO KILLED IN i CAR TRAGEDIES JIN TARANAKI ! (P.A.) New Plymouth. March 9 i The driver was killed and three i passengers were injured when a 'motor-car travelling from Stratford I to New Plymouth struck a guide post on the side of the highway a little 'north of Egmont Village last night. [They were:— • ■ Killed: Clifford George Mather, of Stratford, aged 21, carpenter, single. Injured: John Lewis Jeffares. of Stratford; Rex Theodore jeffares. of Stratford; Maurice Owen Evans, of Stratford. Marks on the road indicated that after it struck the post the car overturned but righted itself again before coming to rest in a hedge some distance away. Frederick Charles Anstis, aged [about 74, of Waihi Road. Hawera, married, with an adult family, received fatal injuries when struck by a car driven by Mrs. R. J. O’Dea. of Hawera, about 7.45 p.m. on Saturday. He was taken to the Hawera Hospital, where he died this morning. The accident occurred at an intersection of Hawera streets when Anstis was crossing the street.