STRANGE ACCIDENT

Hokitika Guardian, 19 January 1928, Page 1

STRANGE ACCIDENT

PIERS OF BRIDCE SINK IN MUD. LORRY DRIVERS GET EERIE EXPERIENCE. NAPIER, .Tail. 17. A fifth of the Waitangi bridge, about six miles south from Napier, on the main Napier-Hastings Road, collapsed shortly before eleven this morning, and two motor lorries loaded with wool narrowly escaped being thrown into the arm of the sea that runs under the bridge there. Two small hoys were travelling as passengers in one of the lorries, but neither they nor the driver were hurt. Evidently two piers la tween the second and third spans from the Napier end of the bridge subsided and forty-five feet of the bridge cracked and went down with the two vehicles. The flooring of the bridge remained just a few inches above the water, hut as the break was not a clean one, the two lorries stayed locked together. Tho affected part of the bridge is now a complete wreck, hut the lorries and cargo got clear before two o’clock. The Railway Department’s buses and other traffic were immediately diverted to roads through Pakowhni, Mecanee and Taradale, and the bus scrvico was kept running l>v means of using a train to unload passengers at the Waitangi washout crossing and take them to other buses waiting at the Clive rail wav station.

The lorries were following each other into Napier and the leader, which was thirty-five feet in front of the. second, weighed seventy-three hundred-weight and carried a load of twenty-four hales, amounting to something liko four a

a quarter tons, so its weight, would he a little less than eight tons. The second lorry was carrying only ten bales of wool ami tile total weight of tho vehicle and load was not much more than lour tons. The driver of the first lorry was only forty foot from the end of the bridge when lie was amazed to find the lorry unaccountably stopped. Then it seemed to lilt backwards, and then began to run backwards, downhill. It was a most eerie sensation. The driver attempted to change gears so as to gel up the slope of the sinking bridge, but was too late. In the meantime, the driver of the second lorry had been in an equally startling plight. The bridge began to crack just as the front wheels of the lorry crossed the piors ahead, and down went the bridge, even ‘before be lmd time to apply flic brakes. The lorry rushed forward and the*two vehicles met at the bottom of the “ V ” that had been made. One of the boys on the second lorry jumped clear, but the other stayed with the driver. The force of the impact with the front lorry ripped the bonnet off the rear lorry, which was considerably damaged. With the aid of tractors both lorries wore pulled clear, alter three hours’ work. An examination of the bridge seemed to indicate that neither of the piers under the broken part had snapped or buckled, but that they had merely subsided into the mud.