DEATH AT THE WHEEL.

Shannon News, 8 October 1929, Page 3

DEATH AT THE WHEEL.

AUSTRALIAN HEROINE. Miss Beverley Jackson, of Melbourne, who was a pretty debutante to His Majesty's Court last year, was the heroine of a tragic West End (London) taxi drama. While Miss Jackson was taking her trunks to a steamer in which she is sailing for Australia, the driver of the taxi-cab fell dead at the wheel in Jbusy street crowded with traffic. With superb courage, Miss Jackson climbed out on to the running board, grasped the brake, and slowed down the taxi, averting what might have been a very serious accident.

Miss Jackson's statement was read at the inquest, and the Coroner paid a tribute to "this competent young woman who put on the, brakes instead, of shrieking and fainting as people did half a century ago." "I am not given to fainting and shrieking," said Miss Jackson, in an interview with a representative,of the Daily Mail. "I did the only reasonable thing. "I was taking my trunks to the steamer when I saw the driver fall sideways. The vehicle, travelling at 15 miles an hour, Was heading for a tree. I climbed on the off-side run-nirlg-board while the taxi was zigzagging across the the road, put up my hand, stopping an omnibus, grasped the brake, and slowed down. A messenger boy jumped on the other side and steered to the side of the road.

"I was not frightened, but I was disgusted by the morbid way people crowded round to look at the dead driver. His death shocked me; I had never seen anybody dead before."