ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1930, Page 3

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

LORRY RUNS AWAY. MAN KILLED AND DRIVER HURT. L By Telegraph, Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Nov. 23. A passenger in the cab of a motor lorry was killed when the vehicle, which was heavily laden with drums of (petrol...-got out of control 011 (ho why down the Paekakai’iki Hill 011 £ After careering ' wildly down the hill at a high speed lor about 200yds, it left the road, ami somersaulted three • times, being prevented from rolling 600 ft to the be ctom' of the hill only by striking a telegraph pole. The nian' was killed instantly when he Ijumped from- tile-runaway vehicle, while tlie driver, who remained at the wheel until the lorry went ov»r the bank, miraculously escaped with a broken leg, injuries to the back. ;and shock. [| They were tthe only occupants of the vehicle. . The man killed was Frederick Astrjelge, . .who was married, with two children, residing at 6, Taupe Quay, Wanganui. The injured man is George Gav. single, of Koputaroa, Levin, with a .broken leg, .his back injured, and shock! The lorry, which belongs to r.hc Hawera Transport Coy., of which \stridge was the manager in Wanganui, was proceeding from Wellington with a load of approximately four tons. About a mile from the summit, the driver found that he had lost con vol. and that both of the brakes would not check the speed. His companion decided to make a jump for sn-et.v, but the driver remained at the whefi until he was thrown out after tin lorry bad somersaulted three times, and been smashed into pieces, wl ieh were scattered down the hillside. The chassis rested against a tefegrap.. pole, the body goilie further down, tjfnd the oil drums went to the foot of the hill.

'■ 'The injured man was taken to the hospital, and was subsequently id need aboard an express train and taken to Palmerston Nortli Hospital. He t.l . iks that something broke in the gear box. as he was coming down in low gen*’. MOTOR CYCLIST HURT. HAWERA, Nov. 22. Resultant in a collision between a motor cycle he wap riding, with a motor lorry at a cross road on the outskirts of the town this afternoon, George Richards, hairdresser, of Flawera, was taken to the hospital with a fracture of the. left leg.

A CADET KILLED

FURTHER PARTICULARS

CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 22

Trying to board the 10.55 train from Christchurch to Lyttelton last evening, Albert Horsley, aged 17, a' cadet on the steamer Canadian Constructor, fell and was run over by the train and killed. The Coroner, Mr E. D. ;Mcisley, said in the verdict at tfie inquest that Horsley’s death was due.to his being run over by the'train, and that no blame was attachable to the railway oilicals. Horsley’s home is in Montreal.

Captain Henry Edmonds Webb, mas. ter of,; the ship, said that decease ], who had only been oh tlie ship th‘<* vbyage, from August- 21), had shore leaver''yesterday, and had to he b" in. time tor start work this morning 1 Louis ' Philippe Begin, an ordinary shaman, had been standing on a railway. . carriage platform as the tram pulled out! He saw Horsley running along the platform, and when he realised that Horsley had faPen he jumped off the train, finding Hc-rsley dead.

To Mr G. H. McLean (Railway Department representative): Deceased knew the time the train was due'to leave. There were no signs of liquor on him;

Thomas Samson, able seaman, bad been standing talking on the railway platform with Horsley and some otherWhen'the train whistled and began to move out. First Horsley and then .Samson left their friends and ran for the train,' hub the latter did not see the accident, getting on to the tram himself.' He heard someone call '’stop the train.,!” and jumped off again. Horsley was dead when we got to him. m “A few seconds after the train i>egain to move I saw Horsley on the carriage platform. The train jolted and he fell off—feet -first," said George Holland, second cook of the Canadian Constructor. Unable to find a communication cord, lie and another man had run through, the tram to the guard’s van, asking the guard to stop the train. The guard sail he could do nothing, and repeated this when witness tried again to have tin’ train stopped. Horsley had been with witness ai’ the evening and had nothing tc- drill: He was a non-drinker. “Tt would not have made the slightest difference to the life of the young man if the guard had stopped th© train,” commented Mr Mosley. Ronald George Anderson, ni"ht watchman at the Christchurch Railway Station, said that about 13 minutes before the train went he saw Three young men sitting on a bench. One o’ them, who witness believed was Horsley, asW Kim if he were v. nnlicemnn. He then said, “sure this New Zealand liquor of yours has snm< kick in it!” Later witness saw bv of the youths talking to two girls. Hr

considered the deceased bad takci*. liquor. He could almost state definitely that deceased was one of the three he had spoken to previously. Constable G. Molloy declared that lie had seen the two companions <’l the deceased a few minutes after tinaccident. They were certainty net under the influence ol liquor, and were perfectly sober. Deceased d.d not smell of liquor. Formal evidence that the tra'u !e f t on time was given. “I am not satisfied by the evidence that deceased had taken any liquor,” said the Coroner, before airing his verdict. “At any rate that would make no difference to -the vor diet.” SPEEDWAY ACCI DENT. WELLINGTON, Nov. 23. - A. W. Hunger, a dirt track rai* crashed while riding in the second semi-final off the Miramar Handicap at Kilbirnie Stadium on Sauiidny night. He suffered facial cuts a-.u concussion. Hunger, who was unconscious for some time, was attende 1 In a doctor and a Free Ambulance, andwas later taken by private car to nis home. FATAL BURNS. AUCKLAND, Nov.'23. Fatal burns were received by Mrs Eleanor Atkinson, aged 60 vea>s, a widow, when she was lighting a lire under a copper at .her borne at Epsom on Saturday: Her clothes caught lire. She was extensively burned, d\ - tig from her injuries' at' the Auckland Hospital early this morning.

ANOTHER ACCIDENT

ON A SPEEDWAY

CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 23

At the first dirt-track races .3 me season Held on Saturday evening, a young rider, George Chambers, sufl-r----ed severe injuries from a fall when the race was in progress. He was 'rudicd to the hospital unconscious, and his condition wap reported extremely critical.

Turning the bend into the back straight, Chambers rode high lip on the track towards the wooden safety fence. Even the onlookers are unable to describe clearly what happened. It seemed as if Chambers rode over a rut in the track, then humped in the saddle, and fell forward inert or*, u.e petrol tank with his head over the handle-bars. In this position the machine and the rider struck the sorei r fence a glancing blow, the machine continuing along the fence for seventy yards before it turned over, throwing Chambers on to the, track. H’s inert body slid for a distance of 10 yntds on the loose cinder surface. Th * la: -'*' crowd present were shocked into silence as the officials rushed to lr > assistance.

Chambers is 21 years old. He live at Gebbie’s Valley. He -s a second division rider', but he haft iron soveiai races.

CHAMBERS DIES.

WITNESSES ACCOUNT OF ACCIDENT. . CHRISTCHURCH, November 24. George M. Chamber;:, aged 21, injured while broad ridwig at Monica Park speedway on Saturday difcd in the hosp’tal last night from a .severe wound in the head caused by striking a post. He resided with his parents at Motukarara. The accident occurred when he was travelling at nearly forty miles an hour when he attempted to pass C. Kennedy in the B grade handicap. Witness sfate Chambers hit the iron post full on with his head. He was knocked unconscious immediately and was carried, along with his head lying of the side of the machine for some distance. His head was battered on the wire and the other posts, while the machine continued on its course. Then the machine seemed to get further out into the track and subsequently crashed. The crash-helmet, built up o>f cork layers, specially prepared was split through and lie suffered a deep gash oh'the forehead:.