SERIOUS COACH ACCIDENT

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 41, 18 February 1901, Page 2

SERIOUS COACH ACCIDENT

' SEVERAL PEOPLE INJURED. THREE VEHICLES SMASH UP AT NAPIER. ' A serious coach accident happened at ; Napier on Friday evening. Messrs Crow:ther and Macauley’s Taupo coach (four horses) was coming into Napier after a 30-mile run, and when going down the isteep incline of Shakespeare hill the horses bolted. The two leaders cleared off with the swingle-trees. At the bottom of the hill there were two single-horse vehicles, and the drivers made an effort to get clear when they saw the runaways, but there was not time for escape, and as ;the vehicles were turning the bolting ’horses crashed into them, upsetting the Vehicles, and the two polers soon following with the coach, that was also driven in upon.the struggling mass, and there 'was a most alarming scene. The affair occurred just opposite the Occidental Hotel, and was witnessed by Mr T. Leslie and other Gisbornites. There were four passengers in the coach, and strange to say all escaped anything in tho nature of serious injury. Of the passengers in the other vehicles six were badly injured, Mr Keating, driver of one of the cabs, getting his head badly cut and some bones broken, One passenger had his ankle sprained, and some of them had to be taken to the Hospital. The horses were severely injured, and the two leaders that caused the first impact had to be shot. One horse had the pole forced right through bis head, but retained life until a friendly bullet put him beyond torture. The driver of tho coach states that the brake failed to aft when coming flown hill.