AMAZING FORTITUDE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 362, 25 October 1932, Page 7

AMAZING FORTITUDE

SMOKED CIGARETTpES WHILE PINNED UNDER CAR. CONSCIOUS TO THE END. Richai'd Gorst, ager 32, commercial traveller, of Goulburn, New South Wales, suffered burns which eaused his death when his car overturped near Robertson and burst into flames. He was pinned underneath the car, and his legs were practically burned from his body before help arrived. He remained conscious throughout, and showed amazing fortitude, smoking cigarettes and talking. He was taken to a hospital, where he died early on the following morning. Mr. Gorst was the only occupant of his single-seater car, which' swerved from the road .at a bend and ran down an embankment. The bend was not a sharp one, nor was the embankment very steep. From car tracks in the grass it was presumed that something had gone wrong with the steering gear. Mr. Gorst had almost gained control of his machine again, and directed it toward the road, when one of the wheels stx-uck a rock and it overturned. Petrol from the tank, which was immediately above the engine, poured over the engine, and the machine burst into flames. Doctors at the hospital said that it was the most terrible case that they had attended. Mr. Gorst did not lose consciousness until he die.l. The me 1ical opinion was that Mr. Gorst's spine had been broken, either in the accident or during his frantic struggles to free himself, and the consequent paralysing of the lower parts of his body had alleviated to some extent the agonising pain. Mr. Gorst left a wife and a ten-months-old child.