TOLL OF LIFE WEEKEND ACCIDENTS

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21047, 26 February 1940, Page 9

TOLL OF LIFE

WEEKEND ACCIDENTS

TWO BROTHERS DROWNED BOYS IN LIGHT CANOES (By Telegraph.—Press Association) INVERCARGILL, Sunday Two brothers were drowned in the j New River Estuary on Saturday afternoon. They were:—• lan Gordon Todd, aged 14. Robert Henry Todd, aged nine. The younger boy was paddling by himself in a canoe made of sheet iron and his brother, accompanied | by Frederick Ross, aged 15, was in i another canoe near by. The first canoe overturned in rough water three of four chains from the shore and it is thought the elder brother jumped from his canoe and endeavoured to save his brother. ! Both were soon in difficulties and | disappeared in about six feet of water. The other craft was upset, but Ross was able to reach the shore in an exhausted condition. Both bodies were later recovered. CAR CARRIED AWAY PASSENGER KILLED VEHICLE IN WASH-OUT (SDecial to Times) WESTPORT, Sunday One man was drowned and another almost miraculously escaped I death when a light car in which 1 they were travelling from Westport to Tiroroa at the height of a storm at midnight on Friday tipped over the Omanu Creek bridge into a deep wash-out, from which the vehicle was carried away in the rain-fed torrent to be eventually found in a greatly damaged condition a mile from the scene. The victim was: Mr Joseph McAuliffe, aged 38, single. A deluge following exceptionally heavy rain which fell from mid-day caused the creek to rise rapidly, washing the timber from the skids of Norris’ Mill on the bank and other debris up against the bridge, which was awash when the car, driven by Mr William Hill, attempted to cross it. Two men on the opposite bank tried to signal the car with lights, but it just failed to pull up in time, and Messrs F. Herring and R. Cropp were horrified to see it topple over the end of the structure into the stream, in which it was tumbled about among the debris and rapidly carried away, with the lights shining for -a considerable distance until it disappeared around one of the many bends in the creek. Mr Herring said they heard Mr Hill, who cannot swim, calling out to his companion from where he had : been washed into still water, from j which he reached the bank about | 100 yards from the bridge, but a j search for Mr McAuliffe proved fruitless. The body was found this evening almost buried in sand at the mouth of the Waimea Creek, a considerable distance from the Omanu Stream. Mr McAuliffe was a former Wanganui, Taranaki, Canterbury and Southland Rugby representative and played one season at Westport,