TRAMS IN COLLISION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 61, 4 December 1937, Page 7

TRAMS IN COLLISION

Our Own Correspondent.)

Violent Impact in Wanganui Smasli EXTENSIVE DAMAGE DONE

(From

WANGANUI., Last Night. , Two trams of thb Wanganui Tramway Corporation came into violent eollision at the.Cemetery corner, at the interseetion of Heads road and Guytpn street extension. Although both. vehle. les were extensively damaged, neithex motormen nor passengers suft'ered serious injury. The driver of one car, Mi C. Hammond, was suft'ering slightly from shoek, and several passengers received bruises. The , driver of the othox car, Mr T. Ahern, escaped injury. • The trams, approaehing a busy period, were running slightly behind schedule, and in consequence no timo was. being wasted. Normally one car would wait at the loop for the other, but ow~ ing to a misunderstanding neither waiteti, with the result that tliey met at the corner. Tlie incoming car, which was the more extensively damaged of the two, fortunately, was empty at tho. time, but the outgoing car contained a number of passengers. The driver of the latter vehicle was somewhat confused by the sun in Ms eyes. Although one car was brought to a standstill and . the driver of .the other had applied his brakes, the collisjon. was a* violent and speetachlar one. The noise was co^siderable and the startling effeot wa's added t.o by a display Of sparks from the overhead gCar. Tho cars were- ehtangled,' the chassis of one being superimposed o*n the framework of the> other, so that considerable difiiculty was expetienced - in' unloeklng them. The upper structure" was reduced to a tnass of smas'hed glass, and splintered wo-o'dwork, "which was thrust sev-" eral feet baek into the body of one of the vehicles. How neither motormau met with serious injury is remarkable, enhanced by the fact that both held on to the brake controls until flung baek.