SENSATIONAL ESCAPE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4943, 24 February 1926, Page 2

SENSATIONAL ESCAPE.

PRISONER IN' DOMAIN' TUNNEL.'

TRAGIC SEQUEL ENACTED.

A-leap for liberty throughrailway carriage yvlndow by a prisoner . • being taken ,to Rotorua from Auck- ; land in custody yesterday morning had a tragic sequel, Constable Adam . Begg being struck by a train in* ’ the 'Newmarket tunnel and sustaining • . / injuries from which he died two • z. hours later. The prisoner whose action was re- • spon&ible for the tragedy was Thomas. Smith, an Australian, who being taken to Rotorua with prisoner, Joseph Moyne, to answer a-charge of theft of benzine from a garage at the thermal town. The two prjsonens were in charge of Constable Johnson, -J of Rotorua, and, soon a,fter leaving the city by the 10.30. Rotorua express, Sfmith. made a desperate jump for lib- ; erty in the s.emi-gloom of the Newmarket tunnel? : The • train being on the up grade was travelling slowly, but it had reached Newmarket before the alarm zcpuld be given and the : escorting constable seek the escapee. The Auckland Police Station in the meantime was notified, and a posse of" - > police, consisting of Sergeant Angland, Constables Hook, Audley, Prestage, and Begg,, was, dispatched to aid ■ Constable Johnson in the search. Constable Begg was the last one to • be called upon. They set off in a car, pand on arrival at the tunnel mouth, just on 11, o’clock, carried out an ex- ' tensive search. AU five then entered the tunnel. When in mid-tunnel a train approached from the city side, and very shortly afterwards' another ■ .train rushed into the tunnel, going towards Auckland. All the men, witfi. th© exception of Begg, laid flat on their stomachs; by the side of the rails, hard up against the walls of - the tunnel. It is thought that Begg stood in the fajrwpy- between the two sets of rails and that the step of "the ' last carriage of one jof the trains struck him. It not for some time ■ afterwards, that they found that Begg had received severe injuries to his ' head and a broken wrist. He was rushed to the Auckland Hospital ’in s an ambulance. Death ensued at 1 o'clock.