RAILWAY CROSSING SMASH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1939, Page 4

RAILWAY CROSSING SMASH

TRAIN STRIKES CAR. OCCUPANTS SLIGHTLY INJURED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND,' August 11. Two men were injured when the car in which they were travelling was struck by a suburban train at Mt. Albert today. The victims were the only occupants of the car. They were: George Bowen Fritchley, architect, aged 50, single, driver and owner of the car, injury to chest and shock; condition not serious. Sidney Herbert Featherstone, land agent, aged 28, single; discharged from hospital after treatment for shock. Both train and motor-car were travelling toward the city. With a loud crash the train struck the car squarely on the left side, tossed it into the air and carried it about 40 yards down the track before depositing it on its side in a shallow depression on the left of the rails. In its course the car struck the end of the fence, snapping off a heavy post at the ground. The train, which was driven by J. Polkinghorne, was pulled up within a short space.

Through the force of the impact the car was badly damaged on one side and the hood was broken. Unable to escape by the doors the occupants crawled through the sun trap in the roof and were then assisted to a nearby house by workmen, who had been engaged on the railway line about 100 yards away.