Driver Fatally Injured

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 99, 18 July 1927, Page 1

Driver Fatally Injured

Companion in Grave Plight BACKED CAR ON TO LINE (.Special to THE SUN.) WHANGAREI, To-day. ONE man was killed and another seriously injured in a shocking motor accident at the Buatangata railway crossing near Kamo, early this morning.

THE casualty list is as follows: CHARLES GILBERT RUMBAL, aged 19, killed. MATTHEW GEORGE THORBURN, serious head injuries and shock. . At 6.50 o’clock this morning Rumbal was backing his car out of a garage near the railway crossing. Apparently he did not notice the train approaching the crossing from Whangarei. The oncoming locomotive crashed into the car, throwing it across the cattle-stop and completely wrecking it. When he was picked up Rumbal was found to be suffering from a crushed pelvis, and one foot and leg was almost torn off. Thorburn was badly injured about the head and was suffering from body wounds.

Both were immediately taken to the Whangarei Hospital, where Rumbal succumbed a 8.30 o’clock his morning. Archibald Crump, an eye-witness, summoned an ambulance and Dr. Ward. Rumbal is a member of an unlucky family. It will be remembered that his brother, in a lit of mental depression, committed suicide two months ago at Whangarei Hospital by saturating his clothes with benzine and setting them alight. The victim of this morning’s accident was of a sunny-natured disposition and a general favourite. The father is a ganger at the Whangarei Railway Station. Thorburn is Rumbal’s brother-in-law.