TERRIBLE ACCIDENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 December 1938, Page 5

TERRIBLE ACCIDENT

CAR AND TRAIN COLLIDI AT CROSSING

MAN AND WOMAN KILLED. ANOTHER WOMAN SEVERELY INJURED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, December 4. In a collision on the Titirangi railway crossing between a northwardbound special goods train and a fiveseatei’ saloon motorcar, a man and woman were killed and a second woman was severely injured just aftex--3.30 p.m. on Saturday. The victims were:

Killed: Charles Purnell Parkerson, married, aged 60 years, retired company organiser and salesman of Princess Street, Otahuhu. Mrs Angelina Harrison, aged 56 years, Norfolk Street, Ponsonby. Severely injured: Miss Evelyn Harrison, aged 38 years, dressmaker, Norfolk Street, Ponsonby, and daughter of Mrs Harrison. She has a dressmaking business in the Dilworth Buildings. Struck broadside on by the engine of the goods train, which had just left New Lynn for Whangarei, the car was carried over a cattlestop, flames coming from it before it slewed to one side. It came to x;est upside down facing the road more than 48 feet from the place of impact. Petrol flowed freely, the car being a blazing wreck. Miss Harrison was thrown clear, with a lacerated scalp and suffering from severe burns, about 30 yards from where the car came to rest. Hexclothing was then on fire. She had been sitting next to Mr Parkerson who was pulled clear by the driver of the train, which had stopped just past the car Mi’ Parkerson’s clothing was burning and much of it had disappeared. He was then dead. At that stage it was impossible to recover the body of Mrs Harrison, who was in the back of the blazing car the heat of the fire being terrific. Not till the Avondale fire brigade arrived and suppressed the flames were e charred and unrecognisable remains of Mrs Harrison removed from the wreckage, which was then little more than a skeleton. . . Miss Harrison was conscious and inquired about her mother before the arrival of an ambulance, which was summoned at 3.35 p.m. and left immediately for the scene. In the ambulance, which also carried the body of Mr Parkerson, she became unconscious and soon after her arrival at Auckland Hospital she underwent an operation. Subsequently the body of Mrs Wnson was taken to the mortuary at the hos : pital in an ambulance. The fireman of thb tram was so affected by the accident that he was unable to continue the journey and had to be taken to his home. Another fireman had to be found and the train was delayed for 40 minutes. The occupants of the car had been for a drive to Titirangi and were returning. When they approached the, Great/ North Road, according to Reginald Earl, a youth of 17 years who witnessed the accident, the locomotive whistle sounded twice and bells were ringing on the crossing. “I thought at first the car would just clear the engine,” he said. Then there was a crash.” Other eye-witnesses were a man ana his little girl. The father was holding up his child to see the train pass when the collision occurred. The Titirangi crossing had been the scene of much constructional activity for some time. N ew^y_a^S tracks were recently laid to replace the former line, and high banks have been formed in preparation for the erection of an overhead railway bridge to eliminate the level crossing.