SHOCKING DEATH

Hokitika Guardian, 22 July 1933, Page 6

SHOCKING DEATH

WOMAN PIERCED BY SHAFT,

TRAM AND SULKY COLLIDE

SYDNEY, July 15,

Mrs' Gertrude Marcella Stamford, aged 39 years, met a shocking death at Willoughby, when a sulky collided with a tram and a shaft pierced her body. Mrs Stamford, who lived with her hugband and two children, sat in the rear of a tram facing foward. George Edward Taylor was driving a newlybroken horse in a sulky in the opposite direction. The suiky was fitted with specially long shafts to restrain the horse, which had been driven along the roads only a few times. The sulky was passing the tram when the horse shied. It jumped toward the centre of the road and collided with the tram. Mr Taylor was thrown to the ground by tho impact, and several of his ribs were broken.

One of tho shafts struck Mrs Stamford in the abdomen, passed through her body and the stronglv-built tram seat and protruded two feet into the next compartment. The tram stopped almost immediately, and men seized the'horse to prevent it moving the shaft, as even the slightest movement increased Mrs Stamford's agony. Three constables were in the locality at the time. They acted swiftly, with the co-operation of householders. One man ran to a doctor’s surgery near b.VThe doctor hurried to the scene and administered an anaesthetic. A householder returned to the scene with a. saw. The men worked with the greatest .care, and the shaft was sawn through on each side of the insensible woman’s body.

The men worked as quickly as they could, but it was about half an hour before the injured woman was freed. •She was placed in an ambulance. It had been found impossible to remove the length of shaft, which remained in her body. She was taken to a hospital where she died about four hours after admission. Doctors found that they could do nothing for her.