Motor Car in the Sea.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 July 1910, Page 4

Motor Car in the Sea.

REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF PARTY OF FOUR. Four motorists had miraculous escapes at Newlyn, near Penzance, the car lea.pi.ng from the cliif road, turning completely ovor, and .falling into the water, 18in deep in tlio harbour. Tlie accident happened through the driver endeavouring to avoid Miss Lapthorne, ft young Bournemouth lady, who is a mistress at Newly 11 Council School. Shortly before eleven o'clock she was descending ■the steep cliff road, which borders Newlyn harbour, when she observed a motor car coming towards her along the new harbour road to ascend the cliff road. She stood against the wall of a fish store neaV the bottom of the hill, in order 1 that the car might pass. Thinking apparently that the car, as ifc took tlio corner, would colliod with her, she ran into the middle of the road, which is a narrow one. Tlio driver endeavoured to swerve out of the way, hut did not succeed. Miss Lapthorne was knocked down and tihe driver found himself prevented •from saving the car and its occupants. LEAP OVER THE CLIFF. Protecting the sheer drop into the harbour is an iron railing which, with the roadway, have figured in many an Academy picture. The driver applied 'his foot-brake, but the car swept through the railings and leapt over the cliff, like an aeroplane, as an eye witness described it. In the fall it (turned over, and pitched hood downwards fifteen feet ibelow into the water. There were four occupants of the car, including a nine-year-old daughter of the owner. Plenty of willing helpers got the occupants of tlio car out of the water. They were drenched to the skin and shaken find bruised, but the only one seriously hurt was the* little girl, who had a .fractured thigh. Mr V. Thomas had a slight cut under the chin. Miss Lapthorne had a fractured jaw and a broken 'arm. Neither she nor .»liss Thomas is in n critical condition. The front part of tlie bonnet of ithe car and the lamps were wrecked, and the glass serein was smashed to atoms. "It was the most marvellous escape anybody could have had," sn.id Mr V. Thomas afterwards. "It seemed an eternity when we wore in the air. and when T found myself Eurglinig in the water. Before we left the chauffeur asked that we might hare the hood of the car up, as it had ibeen wet the day before, and it was the hood and the water, I suppose, that really snved us "