BUS ACCIDENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 280, 16 February 1928, Page 1

BUS ACCIDENT

FIVE people injured CAPSIZE AT WHAU BRIDGE NO SERIOUS DAMAGE An Auckland City Council bus, bound for Henderson from Surrey Crescent, skidded and overturned at the approach to the Whau Bridge at 11 o'clock this morning, and as a result, five people were taken to the hospital. treated is casualty cases, and discharged. The injured people are.— Miss Elizabeth Howley. of 132 Dominion Road. inpiry to the arm and chest. Mr. W. North, tramway motorman, cut above the eye. Mias Luscombe, of 66 Cooke Street, abrasions. Mias Rosetta Birtage, of Blockhouse Bay, cuts on the legs. Mrs. Loveridge, of 78 Grey’s Avenue, cut on the head. As the bus, which was of the light type, approached the Whau Bridge the driver, E. T. Gibson, observed another car about to cross, and he applied the brakes to allow the* motor-car right of way over the bridge. A sharp shower of rain had fallen immediately prior to this, and the sudden application of brakes caused the bus to skid on the wet concrete, which bad been made more slippery by the accumulated oil from the passage of many cars. After slewing to the side of the road the bus, which was carrying about a dozen passengers, struck the grass off the concrete and overturned on to its side, trapping the passengers. Mr. J. Langley, of Edendale, was following the bus in a motor-car, and he immediately stopped and ripped the canvas top of the vehicle open, assisting the passengers out of their predicament. The driver was powerless to prevent the accident, as the road sloped appreciably toward the bridge, and the weight of the vehicle was quite sufflcient to carry It to the side and throw it out of control. The passengers had a miraculous escape from serious Injury. They were thrown into a disordered heap when the bus went over, and but for the timely assistance of Mr. Langley greater difficulty would have been experienced in getting clear of danger. So shaken were the passengers that k was at first thought that some of them were seriously injured. Subsequent examination, however, revealed injuries of a more or less minor character, none fcf the five being sufliciently hurt to warrant their admission to the hospital as patients. The bus was fairly badly damaged, the top and sides being knocked about as the result of the fall, and the windows broken. The City Council staff at Avondale executed a very quick breakdown job, however, and in a veryshort time there was no trace of it to be seen, it having been removed he the shops at Epsom for repairs.