FIRE VICTIMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 February 1939, Page 5

FIRE VICTIMS

LIVES LOST IN MOTOR ACCIDENT

IDENTITY ESTABLISHED,

BOTH DOORS OR VEHICLE JAMMED. (By Telegraph—Press Association ) AUCKLAND. January 31. Protracted inquiries by the police have established as follows the identity of the four persons who were incinerated when a motor-car capsized into a ditch at Takanini this morning:— Bessie Williams, aged about 22, waitress employed at the Papakura Hotel. William Miller, aged 32, married, with three children, labourer, of Weymouth, Manurewa.

Walter Ernest Briggs, aged about 33 years, widower, farm labourer, of Brookby, Manurewa. Maurice Bertram Waterton, aged 32, single, labourer, of Hill Road, Manurewa.

The one chemical fire extinguisher brought by the police from Papakura proved inadequate to quell the flames. It was not till about 3 o’clock, when additional fire-fighting appliances had been used, that the helpers could approach the still-smouldering car to lecover the bodies, which were buint beyond recognition. With the car almost completely destroyed, exceptional difficulties have been presented to the police in a leconstruction of the causes of the tragedy. It is thought probable, however, that the position of the Overturned car resulted in petrol draining from the tank in the ditch and on to the engine, where a short circuit from the battery, which was loosely housed in a metal case, would be sufficient to cause an explosion. Both doors were found to be jammed by the force of the impact. The movements of the party before the tragedy are also uncertain. Mr Miller, who is presumed to have been the driver, took his wife and children in a car to her parents’ home in Papatoetoe on Monday and it is considered likely that he drove Mr Waterton and Mr Briggs and Miss Williams to a dance in Patumahoe on Monday night, the accident occurring on the return journey to their homes.

FATAL SKID EVIDENCE AT INQUEST. AUCKLAND, January 31. The belief that a skid on the concrete road had been chiefly responsible for the capsize of the car and its subsequent destruction by fire was advanced by Constable Christmas, Manurewa, at the inquest opened in Papakura before Mr F. K. Hunt, coroner, into the deaths of the four victims of the Takanini motor tragedy. The constable said he found the car lying on its right-hand side in the ditch, facing south. There was a tyre skid mark on the road, starting at a point 50 feet south from the front of the vehicle and running on an angle from the concrete to the ditch. The position of the car and visible marks indicated that the car had skidded into the ditch, the front right-hand portion striking the bank on. the far side and the vehicle then slewing round and falling on its right side. This would allow the petrol to run out along the ditch underneath the car. Witness' added that it was a very wet and stormy night and the road was slippery. The cook at the Papakura Hotel, Miss Annie Joyce, said Miss Williams came from Whangarei to Papakura on December 23 and toolc up a position at the hotel. She mentioned on Sunday evening that she was going to a dance with three other persons on the following night. The car in which she left had been in the back yard of the hotel for the greater part of the day. “I heard a young man who came to the kitchen window ask Miss Williams to ga to a dance,” witness stated. Miss Williams's parents resided in Waipu. The inquest was adjourned sine die.