Motor Fatality.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 23 October 1917, Page 4

Motor Fatality.

TWO PEOPLE DROWNED.

The "Wairarapa Age" reports that • a shocking.fatality occurred 011 the Toad ''between Mastcrton and Tinui on Wednesday night,, resulting in the death of j Mr James O'Connor, an old and respected settler of the Tinui district, | and his daughter. j Mr Gordon l>aing, of Biversdale, lett • Mastcrton in his Hupmobilc car, acI companied by Mr and Miss O'Connor, I between eight and nine o'clock. | When approaching the ICahumangi i bridge, about twelve miles on the jour- ! ney, something went wrong with the I steering gear of the car, and after tear--1 ing up the roadway it crashed over the side of the bridge. The car fell a distance of between forty and Jifty feet, and after striking the bank, turned comjjletely over in the stream, pinning the occupants underneath. Mr Gordon Laing managed, by an almost superhuman effort, to extricate himself. Mr W. Taylor, from Beaumaris, wis following in his car, and immediately went to Mr Vallance's homestead for assistance. Mr C. V. Vallaiice and a number of his men were speedily on the spot, but it took them about half an hour, or more, with the assistance of ropes, to turn over the car and liberate the bodies of Mr and Miss O 'Connor, which by this time were inanimate, i A message was sent to the police in j Mastcrton, and two constables went out with Dr Cowie. The latter, on his . arrival, could only pronounce life to be 1 extinct. There were abrasions upon both bodies, but it would appear that Mr O 'Connor and his daughter—the latter about sixteen, years of age — were drowned. Mr O'Connor was well known and highly respected in the Tiiwi district, and his daughter «as bright and promising. The escape of Mr Gordon was little short of miraculous. Last night he was suffering a great deal from shock, but otherwise appeared to be uninjured.