LEAP FOR LIFE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 February 1933, Page 6

LEAP FOR LIFE

MOTORIST’S CLOSE CALL

CUt ROLLS EIGHTY FEET

(Per Press Association - Copyright.}

NEW PYMOUTU, Feb. 11

To escape death, or at least serious injury, by a matter of inches alone, while hi-s car rolled over and over to come to a rest on a smashed hood 80ft. below the road, was the terrifying experience of Mr It. Mills,-of New Plymouth, near the summit of Mount Messenger early last Friday morning when motoring from Auckland to Now Plymouth.

Mr Mills, after driving all might through heavy rain and over greasy reads, encmitnered on the mountain a downpour resembling a cloudburst. He was driving slowly. Visibility was very poor when his large sedan slipped sideways 011 a bad corner.

Owing to the heavy rain Air Mills could not see through the windscreen and was forced to lean out of the right-hand side in order to watch the road. Because of this he could -not determine how near the left-hand wheels were to the edge of the cliff—which at that locality is only about lSjn. from the tar-sealed surface. ' It was as the car straddled the edge that he opened the door and jumped out. His action released the weight that was keeping the .vehicle on the road, and it» immediately toppled over slowly and commenced its headlong career through scrub and small trees, finally to come to rest on a badlysmashed hood.