PLUNGE INTO RIVER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 2, 4 January 1932, Page 8

PLUNGE INTO RIVER

ONE MAN KILLED

THREE OTHERS INJURED

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

HAMILTON, This Day

On© man was killed and three others had a remarkable escape from drowning when a motor-car crashed through the railing of the notoriouslydangerous Mangawara Bridge, near Taupiri, yesterday afternoon. The car fell into water ISt't deep. The fatality is the- second of the kind which has occurred at this bridge within two years;'""Koben Janies-.- Eaves;" aged about 60, a Public Work:; employee at Owhiro, was killed instantly. His neck and both arms were broken. Henry Jeffery, a camp cook, tho driver of tho car, suffered a broken arm. Alfred D. Primrose, of 32, Glasgow road, Ellorslie, suffered severe shock, followed by pleurisy. Raymond John Ansell, of 7, Charles street, Mount Eden, received minor injuries'.

The four men, who were employed at the Owhiro camp, wero proceeding from Auckland to Hawera. When they reached the bridge it was raining, and the- side- curtains of the car were up. The bridge, an old wooden one, capablo of taking only one car, forms an almost right angle with tho road at the northern approach. The car negotiated the turn, but failed to straighten up. It crashed into the river about 12ft below, carrying with it about 30ft of rail.

Ansell wan the first to get clear, and Primrose succeeded in scrambling into shallow water a few moments later. Most fortunately there were other motorists on the road. Norman West Avery, believed to reside in Napier, dived in, dragged Eaves from the sunken oar, and brought him to land with Ansell's assistance. Jeffery, hampered by a broken arm, extricated himself. in the meanwhile. A rope was passed under his armpits and he was ha.ulod up on to tho bridge. The other three occupants of the car, after roooiving attention, were conveyed to a private hospital at Ngaruawahia. Thecar has not been recovered.