SHOCKING TRAM ACCIDENT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3377, 5 January 1920, Page 5

SHOCKING TRAM ACCIDENT.

A WELLINGTON SENSATION. THREE MEN KILLED. WELINGTON, Jan. 4. A shocking tram accident occurred on Saturday evening at the corner of Brougham and Pirie Streets, resulting in three men being killed and several others injured more or less seriously. It is assumed that the mofcorman, named Small, must have lost control when the car left the Kilbirnie tunnel hound citywards, for it bolte3~:lown the steep grade, left the rails shortly before reaching the bend, crashed through a fence, and t)U|st its way half into a motor shed, turning over on its near side. The crash of the impact and the shrieks of the imprisoned passengers and tbe cries of the injured could be heard for a considerable distance Very soon plenty of assistance •.*. as

available. The front, part of the oar was badly wrecked. The mot.nnnan was found hanging over the switched with his neck broken. A woman passenger says she noticed the motorman !-lining forward over the switches as

‘•ho car rushed down the hill. The suggestion is made that he lost consciousness. The conductor says he applied the hand brake a/ the- back of the car when no notice was taken of the emergency boll, but it then had no edi ct. The name s of the killed are' Joseph Small, the motor man. James Alfred McEwan, 44 years of age. a carpenter by trade, recently from Pahiatua, a passenger.

James Evans, a clerk at tbo Rase Records. A by-standor injured included Erica Evans, daughter of the last named, a girl of 10 years of age, tv ho sustained cuts on the head. Conductor Erederrick Quayle received a cut on his neck.