CRASH INTO CAR

Hokitika Guardian, 22 July 1931, Page 2

CRASH INTO CAR

] ‘BUS OVERTURNS INT 6 DITCH,

MASTERTON, July 18. Members (of the Gieytown junior Rugby seani bad .a'remarkable escape , from injury this afternoon, when the bus in which travelling, to Masterton collided with a . motor-car left the road, and overturned into a ditch, and wj&’i practically wrecked. A passenger in the car, Mrs Norman Beetham, of Masterton, an elderly woman and'a member of a. well-known Wairarapa family, was taken to hospital suffering from a scalp wound and shock. Mrs Trevor Beethnm, driver of the car, ' escaped serious injury. The car was badly damaged.... • . - . -■■■'■ The accident occurred near the junction of the Ahikouka Settlement road and the main Wellington-Masterton highway. Mrs Beetham swung out to pass another car in front of her and ' was confronted by the bus, which was travelling ii the opposite direction. She endeavoured to averT a collision, but her car skidded on the wet bitumen and she crashed broadside on'into the oncoming bus. So great was the force of the impact that Mrs Norman Beetliam, who was seated alongside the driver, was thrown from the front seat through the back window of the car, ' which was a heavy sedan. She was jammed so tightly into the framework of the window that some difficulty was • experienced in extricating her. The bus had its steering gear broken and, completely out of control, plunged off the road into a ditch. The vehicle turned on its side and was almost completely wrecked. The occupants were all thrown against the broken windows a 3 the vehicle turned, but beyond being cut by glass and bruised, none were injured. The driver, Mr L. Brooks, of Grevtown escaped serious injury. Meanwhile, the thjd car in order to avert a collision, went into the fence.