ROAD ACCIDENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1938, Page 6

ROAD ACCIDENT

BUS FALLS INTO DEEP WATERCOURSE. OCCUPANTS ESCAPE INJURY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, August 31. Nine passengers and the driver of a large passenger bus had a fortunate escape from injury when the vehicle left the concrete road at Mount Wellington shortly after 5.30 tonight and came to rest in a deep watercourse alongside an adjoining fence. The solid structure of the bodywork of the bus withstood the shock as it crashed into the fence and, except for a shaking, none of the occupants suffered any ill effects. The bus, which is owned by the Passenger Transport Company, Ltd., of Otahuhu, and was being driven by Mr H. Jackson, was on its regular run from the city to Otahuhu via Ellerslie. When about 100 yards south of Hamlin’s corner of the Mount Wellington highway, the front right-hand tyre blew out and the vehicle, which weighs about six tons, swerved suddenly to the right. It ran across a grass verge which slopes to a deep open watercourse about 6 feet below road level. Fortunately the bus wheels did not lose their grip of the roadside surface until it entered the watercourse and, as the vehicle tilted over the hedge and fence, stayed its course, and it came to rest at an angle of about 45 degrees. The driver and passengers had no difficulty in leaving the vehicle.