TRAM ACCIDENT.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16723, 5 January 1920, Page 6

TRAM ACCIDENT.

SERIOUS SMASH IN WELLINGTON

THREE MEN KILLED; SEVERAL ; people INJURED. I j (IT.ESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM. 1 V.'FJ.UXC-TOX. January !. ..i-cicliT.t ocottrrcd lust i A serious >.ra.a evenin- at the oonrr or Broughara and ; Pirie streets, resulting m three men being killed and several others injured, , more or less seriously. It .5 assumed that tho motorman, | Small, must liave lost control when the car left the Kiibtrnie tunnel bound citvwards, for it bolted down tie steep grade, and left the rails shortly before reaching a bond. , : The car crashed through a fence and j burst its way half into a motor shed, turning over on tho near side. ; The crash of tho impact, the shriek of the imprisoned passengers. and tho cries of the injured could be heard for a considerable distance. Very soon plenty of assistance was available. The front part of the car was badly wrecked. The motorman was found hanging over the switenes, with his neck broken. A woman passenger state 3 that she noticed tho motorman leaning forward over the switches as the car rushed down the hill. Tho suggestion is made that ho had lost consciousness. Tho conductor says that ho applied tho hand brake at the back of tho car when no notice was taken of tho emergency boll, but it then had no effect. The names of those killed arc:— Joseph Small, the motoftnan. ■ James Alfred McEwen, 45 years of ago, carpenter, recently from Pahiatua. McEwan was & passenger. James Evans, clerk in the Base Records Office, a bystander. The injured include Erica Evans, a daughter of tho last named, ten years of age, who received cuts 011 the head, and tho conductor, Frederick Qnayle, who was cut on tho back. Miss D. Osborne, a Cliristchurch girl, who was a passenger by tho Mararoa yesterday, witnessed tho accident, of which sho gave tho following account to the purser of tho vessel:— "I intended boarding tho train at Austin Htrect-, but it did not slacken speed, and as it dashed past I exclaimed, 'The motorman is down.' I waved and called to tho conductor to go forward, but do not know that ho saw mo. As tho car passed tho next stop a child (Edna Hay) appeared to jump or bo thrown out, and a few seconds later a man also fell or was thrown out of the ear. The car gaining speed loft tho rails at the curyo and dashed into tho corner building, overturning with a dreadful smash. I attended to tho littlo girl, but did not visit tho bccho of tho accident owing to tho crowd which gathered round. Tho doctors and nurses -were soon in attondaneo." Ono of tho injured was Mr A. Wade, assistant purser of tho Mararoa, hut a wireless was received yesterday stating that 110 was progressing favourably.