WOMAN KILLED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 21, 17 September 1931, Page 3

WOMAN KILLED

CROSSING TRAGEDY OCTOGENARIAN - MAORI RUN DOWN BY TRAIN INST ANT ANEOU S DEATH Caught in the middle o£ the Ngongotaha railway crossing by the Auckland express shortly after 10 o'clock yesterday morning, an aged Maori woman, Mrs Ngawhapipi Taua, was killed instantly. The unfortunate woman's body was carried a distance of over a chain, before it was thrown off the cow-catcher of the engine nearly ten feet from the side of the track. Mrs Taua, who was a widow and an old age pensioner, had just completed some purchases at the Ngongotaha store and was on her way home when death so tragically overtook her. She was eighty years of age but it is stated that both her sight and hearing were not in the least defective. Clear View The express was travelling at a comparatively slow speed as it approached the Ngongotaha siding. There is a clear view for quite two miles up the line in the direction of Rotorua and it is stated that both the alarm and ordinary whistles were sounded by the en^ine-driver as the train approached the crossing. The engine crew say that as the train approached the siding Mrs Taua, who was well known to them by sight, started to run across the line in an effort to cross before the train. Immediately the body was picked up, Dr." W. S. Wallis was called,' but on arrival he could only pronounce life extinct. The body was subseauently removed to the Ngongotana Maori meeting house, and it is probable that an inquest for identification purposes will be opened to-day. Mrs Taua, who lived with her son, Mr Peter Taua, at Ngongotaha, is stated to have been in the habit of walking across this partieular ievel crossing two or tliree times every day when passing to and from the settlement. At the time of the accident, however, she was wearing a large black handkerchief over her head, and it is thought that this may have in. peded her vision.