LOCAL RESIDENT’S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3884, 15 December 1928, Page 3

LOCAL RESIDENT’S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

CAR OVERTURNED AND COMPLETELY WRECKED. Mr. W. Kirkland, of Foxton, had a miraculous escape from serious injury in a motor smash at Whakaronga on Thursday evening. He was a passenger in company with Messrs W. Carter (Levin), R. Kingi (Levin), and S. Bilderbeck, of Wibitaunui Mill (Moutoa), in a taxi returning from the Woodville races, driven by Mr. McFarlane, of Levin.

In conversation with our representative this morning, Mr. Kirkland said that the car in which they were travelling was a limousine. Prior to the accident Mr. Carter was occupying the front seat with the driver, Messrs Bilderbeck and Kingi were in the back seat and Mr. Kirkland was sitting in the dicky seat immediately behind the driver. The car seemed to get into a skid from which it did not recover and before anyone realised it the vehicle had capsized. Mr. Kirkland, seeing what was coming, had the presence of mind to bury his head in bis arms. This action undoubtedly saved him from severe bead injuries. After what seemed an interminable tjinie, be said during which there was a terrific crashing noise, he felt himself thrown heavily on to the road. He was uninjured, except for a numbness of the right arm and leg, on which side he had fallen, and looking around saw Kingi nearby and Bilderbeck about half a chain away on the road. Messrs Carter and McFarlane were under the car, which was upside down and facing the direction from which it had been coming. No one appeared to be badly hurt and ithree of them set to work extricating their companions who were pinned under the car. Mr. Kirkland said that a peculiar jumble up had occurred in •the front seat during the capsize. Mr. McFarlane, who had been driving, was in Mr. Carter’s seat and the latter gentleman was in the driver’s seat. * Mr. Carter was caught by the steering wheel column and his overcoat was cut right across the small of the back. The car was absolutely wrecked. The whole of the top portion was taker, completely'off as clean as a whistle, while all the mudguards and running boards were smashed beyond repair and the top of the radiator dented in. One member of the party said that the car somersaulted three times but that Mr. Kirkland could not vouch for. . The car must have turned over at least twice, however, as the mudguards on both sides were wrecked. The ear ended up on the edge of a fourteen foot drain. The people in the cars following, who were eye-wit-nesses to the accident considered that it was nothing short of a miracle that the occupants of the car were not killed. There was not a piece of glass left in the car and the largest pieces on the road were not more than about three inches across. Mr. Bilderbeck, the other local occupant of the car, who was thrown a considerable distance out of the car, landed heavily on the gravel and his clothes were ruined, being cut in many places by the metal. He had a tin box of matches in his hip pocket and this was found to be squashed flat after the accident and a piece of cloth the size of the box had been cut out of the pocket by the impact with the road. Fortunately the matches did not ignite. Assistance was readily forthcoming and the unlucky, but extremely fortunate travellers, were transported into Palmerston Nortn and later brought on to Foxton and Levin. It is stated that the car was not insured.