EARLY MORNING TRAGEDY

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18874, 18 February 1933, Page 12 (Supplement)

EARLY MORNING TRAGEDY

Three people, including a young woman, were killed In a borrowed lorry, which crashed with terrific force Into a tramway standard In Halifax Road, Batley, York. The -victims were: Ml-ss Ellen Pickard, 28, rag-sorter, of Lower Peel Street, Dewsbury, who was killed instantly. Bert Shackleton, 25, butcher and motor-driver, of Grange Road, Cleckheaton, who died in Batley Hospital shortly after admission, and ,'Horace Ilawkesworth, 17, butcher’s assistant, of Westgate, Cleckheaton, who also died in Batley Hospital. The accident occurred about one in the morning, when the lorry, driven bv Shackleton, was proceeding from Cleckheaton to Dewsbury. With Shackleton in the cabin were Miss Pickard, his sweetheart, and Hawksworth. The lorry had almost reached the bottom of a steep hill near the Shoulder of Mutton Inn, when, in taking a sharp bend, it collided with a tram standard. The pinnacle at the top of the standard was snapped off and fell into the roadway, and the front of the lorry—a one-ton vehicle belonging to Mr Clarence Bedford, butcher, of Cleckheaton—was completely wrecked. Bonnet Crumpled Round Standard. The bonnet was crumpled round the standard, which sheared through it like a knife and forced the engine back into the cabin. Miss Pickard, who appears to have been seated between her two companions, received terrible Injuries, her head apparently coming in contact with the electric standard. _ Shackleton was found unconscious and hanging out of the cab on the right side, with his head and shoulders

on the roadway and one foot fast between the body and' the engine. Hawks worth, who was flung out on to the near-side pavement, was unconscious when picked up, but regained consciousness before he died. At the Inquest Mr Bedford, the owner of tho lorry, gave evidence that both Shackleton and Hawksworth were employed by him. About midnight Shackleton called and asked if he could borrow the lorry, and witness gave him the necessary permission. Shackleton had driven the lorry for two-and-a-half years. When witness visited the scene of the accident he saw a skid leading from the tramlines 6ver the greasy and slippery road. ’Coroner: Was the skid from the proper side? —Yes. Replying to Supt. Stone, of Dewsbury police, £Mr Bedford described the spot as a ‘‘tricky place,” and the superintendent mentioned that there was a gradient of one in six. Stanley Spence, an omnibus driver, of Hanging Heaton, related that he was walking home along Halifax Road about 1 a.m. when a lorry passed him and his workmate at a speed which witness estimated at 50 miles an hour. “I thought the lorry got into the tramlines," explained witness. I heard a screeching of brakes and a crash, and I thought the driver applied the brakes to the fullest extent as soon as he saw the danger.

Borrowed Lorry Dashes Into Tramway Standard.

The first thing Spenc« uotioed was a young man lying outside the cab with head and shoulders on the ground. A woman lay full length in the bottom of the cab, and another man was on the pavement on the lefthand 'side. The vehicle was just beginning to burst into flames, when witness threw a cushion over Shackleton and the girl. Ridiculously Excessive Speed. Supt. Stone asked Spence whether he considered the speed at which the lorry was travelling was safe at that point—Witness: Absolutely ridiculous. What in your opinion, was the cause of the accident?—Excessive speed. „ Charles Cyril Hawk-swell, another ’bus driver, who was with Spence, stated that when the lorry passed them he spoke to his companion about Its speed, saying he wondered whether the driver would get round the bend on the deoline in front. -From the way the lorry was driven he considered the driver would be sober, as its course was perfectly straight. The ooroner, summing up, remarked that there was no reason to disbelieve the evidence which estimated speed at 50 miles an hour. As the three people involved were dead, no one could tell what aotunlly happened, and in the olreumstanoes the verdict would be “Accidental death.