AN EXCITING TIME.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2187, 11 May 1908, Page 2

AN EXCITING TIME.

ACCIDENT ON THE BULLER te> RIVER. COACH PRECIPITATED INTO RIVER. (Press Association.! WESTPORT, May 10. A sensational l , accident occurred on(3 the Buffer river this momili-g. Sj As .the mail coach, which had been detained from yesterday owing to the flooded .state of the river, was cross- , in<r «.t tiie nine mile ferrv it-gave-way's! and tlio punt dipped at tlio head. Tiled); c-'a-h. and five horses went ovcrlioard. if all '•lie horses -being quickly ’drowned. "1 The .punt continued to go down;A rtream at a rapid rate and, hittingA'S a subme-rred >~tumn, had a bole knock- f eel ; u tho bottom. The driver. Polil, jumped over-boa’-d. and tr'«d t-o get a small boat. '. but f.viV-d and was almost’ exhausted ':;: u*bo*i flip pncsono'or.s wot out a life lino n j,d .puPod back on to the vint. Tbo fnttor was now close in shorn and shortly afterwards eevoral pf the 'passengers .got, ashore, Miss: 1 ! Vance being nearly drowned, as she jumped rather late. The punt went i.j on again but again -got close ashore'.:; and the remaining passengers landed. Tiie punt, continuing down stream, j crashed into a pier of .the ißuller | bridge and finally become stranded s ou the west training wkM. a few hundred yards below the bridge. Hie • passengers were Howard Vernon and : Company, comprising 'Mr Howard .) Vernon, Mieses D. Tovte, Iris Vance, McKenzie, Chatfielfd, Messrs Roland, Rees, John Howard, AlrsHoward and Air Joseph Mead; Claud Grooby, punt man, Joseph Askew, assistant, and 'Nodaai Pbhl, driver of the coach. All speak in highly eulogistic terms of the courageous conduct of the driver. 1 The mails (only coastal) and most - £ of tile luggage on the coach I)3S been recovered. The coach is in five feet of water, but is undamaged. -lylffj