TRAMWAY ACCIDENT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10290, 27 May 1919, Page 6

TRAMWAY ACCIDENT

FREIGHT CAR JUMPS RAILS,

The City Corporation electric tramway .freight car jumped tho rails in Tinakori road about 5.45 o’clock last evening, crashed through a fence, and fell over a bank a distance of some eight feet, on to its side. The motorman and conductor stuck to their posts without receiving any serious injury. |-ut tho body of the car suffered considerable damage. It appears that the freight car had delivered a load of flour and other goods to Mr Rains, grocer, Karori, and was returning empty to town. The vehicle was com ing down the steep grade in Tinakori road when it suddenly left the track and ran diagonally through a wooden fence which guarded tho edge of a con Crete wall, falling on to tho road below with a terrific crash. The trolley pole struck an electric lighting wire, snapping it and thus putting many places in darkness. About 30ft of tho fence was carried away.

The general wonder was how the motormun, Thomas Orchard, and the conductor, James Nolan, escaped with, out serious injury. Orchard seems to have saved himself by grasping a .stanchion. Tho conductor was inside the car, and naturally received a severe jolting, but was otherwise little tho worse for his experience.

The car, which weighs about six tons, fell on its sido across Little George street. The tramway authorities were soon on the scene with the emergency car, and w’ith the aid of special gear and jacks had raised the ejurvsized' vehicle to an angle of 45 dofroos from the ground by midnight.he, accident is unprecedented in tho history of the local tramway service.