SIX DROWNED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 9, 4 October 1937, Page 7

SIX DROWNED

-Prtaa Aaaociation.)

Trapped Under Car DIVE INTO STREAM Somersault Down 30-Foot Bank ROAD A "DEAmTRAP"

(Br Telcgraph-

AUCKLAND, Last Night. Suffaring from grave injuries and trapped in tne vemcio ror more than three houre, «ix per&ons ioft their lives when a large sedan mobor-car left the roafl and semer- " saulted 30 feet into a stream alongsido the Waingaro road ahout 13 miles from Ngaruawahia shortly after 5 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. The victims were a man and his wife and their child and another elderly man and his two grandchiidren, who were returning to thedr homes at Glen Afton after visiting Waingaro Springa. f The victims were Mr William Henry 'Cole; aged 51, miuer, of Glen Afton; his wife, Mrs Nellie Cole, aged 41; their Aaughter, Irene Nellie Cole, aged 11; John Nicholson Adairj, aged 66, miner, Of Gleu Afton; his grandchildren, Thelma Dellaway, aged 9, and Bettie Dellaway, aged 6, daughters of Mr F. G. Dellaway, miner, of Glen AftonThe accident occurred at a. flharp bend on the winding Waingaro road. When approaehing the cprner Mr Cole, who was flriving the car, awufig sharply outward to avoid a collision with another. vehicle proceeding in the opposite direction and driven by Mr Colip Kenneth Smith, of Te Akau. Mr Smi'th had pulled his own car to the bank on the left-hand side of the road and had atopped. Mr Cole's car became out of control /in atteiupting to gaip. a aafe poaition on the other side of the road. Aa a result oi this Mr Cole'a car left the road and plunged over a steep bank oi 50 feet to the Waingaro stream, erashing through thick undergrowth and aomersaulting several times before coming to Tes't in six feet of water, where it was almost completely aubqierged. Mr Smith, the driver of the other car, ewam to the submerged vehicle and pulled out Mrs Cole. Efforts to revivo her fafled, and endeavours tb. rejnove tho others were unsuccessful. Later, with the asairtanco of 50 miners, the bodies were recovered. At 'the inquest to-day tha Coroner, Mr F. Harris, strongly criticised the condition of the road, which was described as being a death-trap. He returned a verdict that the deaths were ftccidental. Tho same corner was the acene of an acoident of a aimilar nuture on August 23, 1936, when two Glen Afton miners, Messrs John Steveus, aged 62, and William Cole, aged 26, son of Mr William Henry Cole, who was killed on Saturday, lost their* lives. 9 Mr. and Mrf. Cole are brother and flister-in-law respectively of Mrs. Hi}l, .of 27 Linton street, Palmerston North.