TRAM SMASH

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20987, 14 December 1939, Page 10

TRAM SMASH

BRAKES OUT OF ACTION MOTOEMAN INJURED TWO PASSENGERS SUFFER (Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Wednesday When descending a hill on Remuera Road at 5.30 p.m. today, a tramcar, the brakes of which went out of action, crashed into a stationary tram at the foot of the hill. Both vehicles were extensively damaged. Both trams were proceeding from the city to the Meadowuank terminus. Efforts to apply the biakes were of no avail. When the motorman, Mr Franklyn Lee Thrussell, aged 30, of Onehunga, was removed from the totally wrecked cab of the descending tiam, he was suffering from a fracture of both bones of the right leg and an injury to the other leg. A passenger alighting from the stationary tram, Mr M. S. Allan, of Remuera, was cut on the face, and an elderly woman, a passenger in the moving car, suffered shock. The descending tram carried only about four passengers who, with the conductor, Mr G. W. Turner, were mostly in the back compartment. All were shaken, one elderly woman, who suffered shock, being thrown violently on to the floor. Two passengers were alighting from, the stationary tram when it was struck. One was unhurt, but the other, Mr Allan, was struck on the face by flying glass. Those' within the tram were not injured, and the conductor, Mr W. Fairley, was standing near the front of the vehicle.

When the trams were prised apart, the splintered roofs and heavy chassis were practically all that remained of the platforms. Damage to other parts was slight, scarcely a window being broken.