LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1940, Page 7

LEVEL CROSSING SMASH

FARMER AND WIFE KILLED. TRAGEDY NEAR PUKEKOHE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. January 4. The level crossing on the Waiuku branch railway about one mile north of Pukekohe was the scene of an accident involving the loss of two lives this morning. The victims are:— MR JOHN BOYD MARSHALL, aged about 70. a farmer, of Taitimu. Graham’s Beach. Waiuku. MRS FRANCES VIOLET MARSHALL, aged about 50. wife of Mr Marshall. Mr and Mrs Marshall left their home at Taitimu in a small saloon car at about 7.30 this morning en route for the Centennial Exhibition at Wellington. At Pukekohe they turned north along the main road to Auckland. The driver of a cream lorry noticed the car just ahead of him approaching the level crossing. The view to the right down the line is partly obscured by a bank.

The car continued on to the line, but as it did so the Waiuku train, which had left Paerata station about three minutes before, came into view from the right and crashed into the car. Neither train nor car was travelling at a fast speed, but the car was carried up the line on the front of the locomotive in a wrecked con. dition with pieces of the vehicle scattering to right and left. Mrs Marshall was thrown clear about two chains up the line from the point of impact. She was in a serious-, iy injured condition. Her husband was carried with the chassis and engine of the car about another two and a-half chains. The wreckage then came off the front of the train and Mr Marshall was in it. The train was stopped a few yards further on.

Mr Marshall died in a few minutes and Mrs Marshall was carried to the nearest house, where Dr Begg, of Pukekohe. attended her. She had a double fracture of the right thigh and grave internal injuries and her death occurred at the Auckland Hospital. The crossing has been -the scene of at least two other accidents, one of which ended fatally. The Waiuku train was delayed about 40 minutes. Mrs Marshall was Mr Marshall's second wife and they had been married about two years.