FOOT TORN OFF

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 630, 5 April 1929, Page 11

FOOT TORN OFF

RABBITER hurt IN LEVEL- * CROSSING SMASH EXPRESS strikes motor ' TE AWAMUTU, To-day. Crashing into a light five-seater mo tor-car in the Te Awamutu station yard, about 11 o'clock this morning, the Daylight Limited express reduced it to a heap of tangled wreckage. The driver of the car, William Warren, had one fost torn off, but escaped other serious injury. The express had passed over the level crossing at the northern entrance to the station. In the station vard there is another crossing leading to the goods-shed. The car was following closely behind a lorry, and the driver apparently failed to notice the express. The lorry got clear, but the express hit the rear of the car, reducing it to an unrecognisable heap of wreckage, which was entangled in the cowcatcher and carried some distance before the train was brought to a standstill. The express travelled 95 yards from the crossing to the station platform and finally stopped a further 32 yards along the platform. The only occupant of the car was Wallace Webster, aged about 21, a rabbiter, of Parawera. He became entangled in the wreckage, and was not extricated until the express stopped. Women fainted as he was dragged past the station platform. His right foot was torn off at the ankle through being wedged against the stones forming the run-up to the platform. Medical aid was quickly summoned. The injured man was conscious throughout. It is stated that, apart from the loss of his right foot, he escaped with only minor bruises. His escape from death was miraculous. The car is twisted beyond recognition, and the debris scattered about the yard. The station signalling apparatus was wrecked, but the permanent way is not damaged. The injured man was removed to the Waikato Hospital.