SHOCKING TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 4 March 1927, Page 3

SHOCKING TRAGEDY

* MOTOR RACING SMASH

J Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.]

(Received this day at 9.30 a.m.A

LONDON, March 3. Half an hour after Parry Thomas, the world’s foremost racing motorise •- .stepped unconcernedly into the lunious * Babfl at Pendinc Sands, against the doctor’s orders owing to his suffering from influenza, in an ' endeavour to wrest the speed championship from Campbell, cabled on February 4tli, lie was lying dead, and tbe car, the product of bis own engineering genius, was a tangled mass of debris. Ihe disaster occurred on the fourth attempt. He had changed the plugs travelled on the way, and was about to enter the official mile on the way hack, having attained a speed of 170 miles hourly, when the driving chain of the hack wheel snapped, and clipped tiie cogs of the locked wheels and ' wrapped itself round them. At a terrific speed the ear skidded violently and mechanism were hurled a hundred yards. Then the machine somersaulted twice and again skidded almost broadside on. The rear wheel hounded like a rocket towards the sea, and the chain unwound and broke through the mudguard with a staggering force, and struck Thomas on the neck, tearing off the scalp from the neck and forehead, virtually decapitating him. Death must have been instantaneous. Ihe car came to a stop more than hull a mile from the scene of the accident, turned on its side in a crumpled heap % and hurst into violent flames. Pie: cs of the ear body, portions of the mechanism and windscreen were pounded into a tangle. Thomas was lying entangled and before he could he extricated his legs had to he broken. There was a heart-rending scene when one of Thomas’s mechanics rushed towards the starting point, crying like a. child, shouting: “Oh! My Clod! He is dead.’’ , LONDON. .March 3. Mr Parry Thomas’s last epic appearance at Brook la lids was in October last, when he .broke three records (cabled on October 7tb). Ho was obviously a sick man when he went to his death. “Do you have a mascot!' he was asked just before he stepped into his car. “ No—l do not trust in false Gods,” he replied. At that moment his'mechanic arrived with a black cat, presented by a lady motorist, which he tied to the ear. Parry Thomas was literally unwrapped from “ Babs.” It was a fouihundred horse power car and developed over six hundred, ft had twelve cylin- / dels, four carburettors and roughly had two thousand revolutions since Campbell took the record a month ago. fc- Air Parry Thomas had changed the * shape of the car and fitted it with a new radiator. • Mr Malcolm Campbell said: “ A v stout-hearted fellow has gone. You * take your life in yoty hands in attempts of this kind.