TRAGIC MOTOR CYCLE COLLISION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3872, 17 November 1928, Page 2

TRAGIC MOTOR CYCLE COLLISION.

THREE YOUNG MEN KILLED. Stratford, Last Night. Three men were killed in a headon collision between two motorcycles at Tariki some time before midnight last night. A motorist passing along the road saw the bodies and reported the accident to ihe Stratford police about midnight. One man, named Gilbert Thomas Williams, aged nineteen, of New Plymouth, was found to be dead. The other two were very seriously injured, and were brought to the Stratford hospital, but could not give any account of the accident. These were Athol Roberts, aged 16, and 'Charles Vincent Johnson, both sons of local residents, who were returning from New Plymouth at the time of the accident. Roberts died at ii o’clock this morning, and Johnson about 8 o'clock.

The cause of the tragedy is a matter of surmise. The accident happened on a straight piece of road, half a mile north of Tariki, a small township between here and Inglewood. The inquest on Roberts and Johnson will be opened here this afternoon, and on Williams later at Inglewood. After the evidence of identification, it will be adjourned probably for a week. A suggestion is made that there was another person on Wil'Jijams’ bicycle, but no confirmation can be got. In both cases ike parents of the Stratford victims were not aware till this morning that their sons were not in bed.

The two Stratford boys were lying under the machines on one side of the tarred surface and Williams on the other side. There is every indication that the collision was head on.