CRICKETERS’ ESCAPE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 952, 21 April 1930, Page 1

CRICKETERS’ ESCAPE

CAR NEARLY GOES OVER CLIFF From Our Own Correspondent HAMILTON, Sunday. How a car-load of Taranaki cricketers nearly 'went off the road into the Awakino Gorge on their way from New Plymouth to Hamilton on Good Friday was related by Mr. D. Saxton, captain of the Taranaki side, yesterday. Mr. Saxton -was motoring about half a dozen of the team, who commenced a match with Waikato here yesterday morning. They were rounding a corner when another car was met travelling swiftly round the bend in the opposite direction. In swerving to avoid a collision Mr. Saxton was unable to prevent one of the rear wheels of the car he was driving going over the cliff edge. He applied his brakes instantly and by a miracle managed to right the car on the road, avoiding a fall of several hundred feet. "There were many such escapes and as many minor accidents on that road,” said Mr. Saxton, who added that he had been throughout Awakino Gorge about a dozen times and had never seen such heavy traffic or such a big proportion of “maniac” drivers. There was, he said, a continuous stream of cars travelling south-west ! into Taranaki. As an indication of the enormous I amount of motor traffic on the main highways this Easter a Hamilton motor-service agent told a reporter that a tally taken at Me—er on Thursday night showed that 800 cars had passed in an hour.