FATAL SPEED MANIA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 8944, 9 October 1907, Page 1

FATAL SPEED MANIA.

Sliced mania has led to a shocking I motor-car accident iu Mr Root, a wcatlhy mauntactnici, hi. .V mother «> “? killed, ins sister fatally , and his 14-year-old meco severely or .speed and racing that led™ catastrophe. He automobile parallel wit.i f . hc lines, and when he hoard tlie 1 of the New York-Pitttsfield express behind him, speed madness tJ V? spirit of competition is believed, as on many previous oc casions. For more than a mile car and the train whirled alon| jm ° by side, and the former forged ahead, The passengers iu the express j awsn ing the race with mtensc mteiust saw Mr Root, in a spirit of bravado, as they allege, make a su den swerve towards the effort to show that he could not <W beat the train, but cross ahead ot «• It is quite possible that Mr Root tried to cross iu front of the tram a last resort. Just where ; the r turns sharpely across the tra . there is a high bank. Had Mr Bo , sent the machine ahead lie woul, have struck this bank, and in al probability the machine would have pitched on the railway tracks. As it was the car smashed into the side of the engine tender and bounded back, hurling the occupants high in the air and far from the rails. A curious legal point has arisen in connection with the estates of Mr and Mrs Root aunt of the former. All three died within a few minutes after the accident, and before settling the estates the courts will have to decide who died first.