Another Level Crossing Tragedy

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 4, 5 January 1940, Page 6

Another Level Crossing Tragedy

Husband and Wife Killed TRAIN HITS SMALL CAR AT WAItTKV Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Jan. 4. The level crossing on tho Waiuko branch railway about one mile north of Pukekohe was the scene of an accident involving the loss of two lives this morning. The victims are:— MR. JOHN BOYD MARSHALL, aged about 70, a farmer, of Taitimu, Oraham’s beach, Waiuku. MRS. FRANCES VIOLET MARSHALL, aged about 50, wife of Mr. Marshall. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall left their borne at Taitimu in a small saloon car at about 7.30 this morning en route for the Centennial Exhibition at Welling ton. At Pukekohe they turned north along the main road to Auckland. The driver of a cream lorry noticed the car just ahead of him approaching the level crossing. The view to the right down the line is partly obscured by a bank. The car continued on to the line, but as it did so the Waiuku train, which had left Paerata station about three minutes before, came into view from the right and crashed into tho car. Neither train nor car was travelling at a fast speed, but the car was carried up the line on the front of the locomotive in a wrecked condition with pieces ot the vehicle scattering to right and left. Mrs. Marshall was thrown clear about two chains up the line from the point of impact. She was in a seriously injured condition. Her husband was carried with the chassis and engine of the car about another two and a-haif chains. The wreckage then came off the front of the train and Mr. Marshall was in it. The train was stopped a few yards further on. Mr. Marshall died in a few minutes aud Mrs. Marshall was carried to the nearest house, where Dr. Bcgg, of Pukekohe, attended her. She had a double fracture of the right thiga and grave internal injuries and her death occurred at the Auckland Hospital. The crossing has been the scene of at least two other accidents, ono of which ended fatally. The Waiuku train was delayed about 40 minutes. Mrs. Marshall was Mr. Marshall’s second wife and they had been married about two years.