FOUR LIVES LOST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 July 1938, Page 8

FOUR LIVES LOST

MOTHER AND THREE CHILDREN CAR FALLS INTO AUCKLAND HARBOUR. FATHER'S VAIN ATTEMPTS AT RESCUE. (By Telegraph-—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 27. When a motor-car plunged from Campbell’s Point, near the shore end of the eastern tide deflector in Auckland harbour shortly before 9 o’clock tonight, four occupants, a mother and her three children, lost their lives. The driver of the car, Mr Harold James Lawson, aged 35, compositor, Victor Street, Avondale, escaped with his life after making a gallant endeavour to save the lives of the occupants. Those drowned were: — Mrs Vera Lawson, aged 34, wife of Mr Lawson. , Joan Lawson, aged 14, her daughter. Peter Lawson, aged 10, her son. Gladys Lawson, aged 7, another daughter. Mr Lawson is in hospital in a serious condition suffering from shock and the effects of immersion. Motorists whose cars were parked near the Pan-America Airways base and the Royal Akarana Yacht Club headquarters noticed a car pass at a speed of about 20 miles an hour and it turned out of their vision round the corner of the St George’s rowing shed, where a number of small craft were out of the water. At least one man heard a crash shortly after, but presumed the noise came from trains shunting in the railway yards some hundred yards away. However, a few seconds later a furious hammering on the door of the yacht club shed attracted the attention of the caretaker, Mr P. H. Marshall.

“On going down I found Mr Lawson wet through and highly agitated,” said Mr Marshall. “He told me his wife and kiddies were in the harbour and that the car had gone over the edge. He did not remember how he got out. All he knew was that one minute he was in the water and the next he was on the surface.” Mr Marshall said he immediately telephoned the Queen’s Wharf police station and, while he was doing so, Mr Lawson disappeared and dived from the 10-feet seawall into the water in an endeavour to rescue his wife and children. Mr Marshall saw he was already exhausted and threw him a lifebuoy and hauled him to the side of the seawall. From there he was later dragged along to the skidway and taken, after resuscitation measures by St John Ambulance men, to Auckland Hospital in an unconscious state.

With the arrival of four constables a dinghy was launched but little could be done to aid the occupants of the car, the position of which could be identified by the eerie glow of the headlights 10 or 12 feet under the water, until the harbour board launch Ferro and an augmented force of constables arrived. Hopeless attempts were made to fix a line to the submerged, car for some time. Grappling irons and other methods proved unsuccessful and just before midnight the car still remained on the harbour bed. At 1 a.m. the services of a diver were obtained and as the tide had receded considerably, all the bodies were recovered within 10 minutes. TRAGIC MISADVENTURE MOTORIST NOT FAMILIAR WITH ROAD

AUCKLAND, This Day. A tragic story of the circumstances of the accident was told by the father of the family to his brother, James Richard Lawson. The family had gone to visit friends in Parnell, but, finding them out for the evening, decided, at the boy Peter's request, to go down to the waterfront to watch the shipping. Mr Harold Lawson drove ,to the Yacht Clubhouse, and as he went, on round, the building, believing that the read continued all the way, his

attention was distracted by his son’s remark: “Look at that boat with all the lights, Daddy.” The next thing Mr Lawson knew was that the car was in the water. He managed to escape through a window. The car, which was still partly full of air, remained suspended for a while, and he tried to drag one of the family out, but the vehicle settled on the bottom and he lost his grip. At the opening of the inquest, before the Coroner, Mr F. K. Hunt, James Lawson said his brother was devoted to his wife and family. He was in good financial circumstances, but for the past month had been suffering nervous strain owing to pressure of work. He had been driving for about eighteen months, and was considered a good driver, and very careful. His eyesight was good. The inquest was adjourned. Mr Lawson is still suffering from shock, but his condition today is more satisfactory. The police are now working to recover the car.