FATAL BUS SMASH

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 178, 18 October 1927, Page 9

FATAL BUS SMASH

WOMAN KILLED AND OTHERS INJURED HIT TELEGRAPH POLE WELLINGTON, Monday. An elderly woman was fatally injured, two others seriously hurt, and several others suffered m nor injuries when one of the Bell Bus Company's buses. bound from Khandallah to the city, crashed into a telepraph pole a few hundred yards on the northern side of the Karwarra railway bridge just before noon to-day. The dead woman is Mrs. Annie Eleanor Watson, of 39 Grove Road, Kelburn. She suffered terrible injuries and died within half an hour of her admission to the hospital. Mrs. Watson was the widow of the late Captain D. J. Watson. Miss Gertie Bradley, of Station Road. Khandallah. and Mrs. Fraser. of Awarua Street. Xgaio, were taken to the hospital. They are in a serious condition, but their injuries are described as net critical. Mrs. Harry Bradshaw, aged 40. of York Avenue. Khandallah. ajid Airs. Stevens, aged 30, of Ranui Terrace, Khandallah, were among those who were less seriously injured. Airs. Grace, a clothier, of Ottawa Road. Xgaio. was admitted to hospital at 3 p.m. with a broken wrist. Other victims of the accident after being cared for at the houses of some railwaymen living near the scene of the mishap were able to return to their homes. All the occupants of the bus, about a dozen women, were hurled out on to the footpath amid a shower of broken glass and pieces of splintered wood which covered the road for a radius of many yards. Seats and fittings were twisted into an almost unrecognisable mass, anil some remarkable escapes from more serious injuries were experienced. Such was the force of the impact that the telegraph post with which the vehicle collided snapped near the top and shaft€‘d some inches out of position.* The bus left the bitumen about 30 yards back and struck the telegraph pole first with the front right-hand mudguard. The full force of the impact, however, was received near the first the door where, it is understood. Mrs. Watson vas sitting. The pole tore the side out of the bus, which came to a stop in its own length, with its wheels on the footpath. In a statement made to Patrol-Con-stable Morrison. the driver. John O'Callaghan, said that the steeringwheel slipped from his hand. An examination of the bus after the accident showed that the steering-gear was not defective.