BUS SMASHED TO PIECES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 390, 26 June 1928, Page 1

BUS SMASHED TO PIECES

Hit By Limited Engine DRIVER LEAPS CLEAR: STRUCK BY DEBRIS r!EN the engine of the Limited express and a motor-bus collided at a level-crossing at Southdown this morning, the driver had a miraculous escape. The motor-bus was smashed to matchwood and the driver, Mr. E. Edwards of Queen Street, Onehunga, jumped from the bus on to the road, just before the engine struck. He fell a few feet from the engine and was struck by the debris. He was cut about the head and is suffering from shock, but after treatment at the Auckland Hospital he was able to return to his home.

Little remains of the original motorbus, parts of which were scattered over a wide area at the Church Street level crossing, Southdown. The engine was cut right out of tne bus and thrown some distance away into a pool of water. The seats and pieces of the bus were lying in confusion. The upper structure was torn off the body which, with three seats still attached, W f aa lying in another direction. Fortunately there were no passengers in the bus, otherwise the accident would have developed into a ghastly tragedy. When the Limited arrived in Auckland the left side of the locomotive was covered with pieces of broken ffla.se. There was evidence of where the cow-catcher had caught the bus. which had evidently been bumped along the side of the locomotive until it was caught by the platform of the first carriage. The iron railings on the platform of the first carriage had been carried away and the woodwork of the carriage itself had been knocked in by the force of the blow. Mr. Edwards, who is a driver for the Passenger Transport Co., Ltd., had finished his first run to Otahuhu and was returning to Onehunga for breakfast. He was not travelling along the passenger route. Passengers in the first compartment of the train received a nasty shock *’hen the broken motor-bus crashed into the woodwork. The injured man was attended by the guard on the Limited. Mr. Donahue, and placed on the train. He was taken from the Auckland station to the hospital, where his head was stitched.

The driver of the Limited states that he blew his whistle three times before approaching the crossing, which is a very open one and approaching trains are visible for a good distance. Mr. Edwards, driver of the bus, said that he did not see the engine until he was within 10 feet of it.