Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Tuesday 13 December 1932, page 15


AMBULANCE WRECKED ON NORTH TERRACE

One Killed; 4 Hurt; Three Seriously CRASH IN TO CAR AND POLE Hurrying To Hospital With Urgent Case

When a Hindmarsh ambulance, hurrying to the Adelaide Hospital with a girl patient requiring ur-gent treatment, collided with a

sedan car and then crashed into a tram standard on North terrace shortly after 8 o'clock last night, a woman accompanying the girl was killed. The girl, her mother, and an am-bulance attendant were admitted to the Adelaide Hospital suffering from head injuries. Late last night the condition of the girl, her mother, and the ambulance attendant was serious. The whole of one side and the back of the ambulance were torn off, leav-ing the vehicle a wreck. The car's front mudguard was buckled. The victims are;— KILLED Mrs. ROSA PLATT (60), of Frede- rick street., Welland South. IN HOSPITAL EDNA REICH (about 17), of Frede-rick street, Welland South, frac-tured skull and lacerated left arm, condition serious. MARTHA REICH (about 40), mother of Edna Reich, head injuries and fractured leg, condition serious. EDWARD WAUCHOPE (25), ambu-lance attendant, of Day terrace, Croydon, head injuries and shock, condition serious. TREATED CLEMENT HOCKING (30), ambu-lance driver, of Coombe road, Al-lenby Gardens, broken nose and cut hand. Early this morning the girl was re-moved to the Queen's Home. It is believed that the driver of the sedan thought that the ambulance was intending to pass between him and the kerb and pulled over to give him room. The two vehicles came together as the ambulance came up on the right-hand side of the car. Beyond the Morphett street Bridge the tramway standards run only for another block, to the corner of Victoria street, after which the cables are sup-ported from the kerb. The stan-dard which was struck by the ambu-lance was the last on the road. Appalling Scene The scene after the accident was appalling. The bodies of three women and the ambulance attendant lay around the standard beside the shat-tered ambulance, of which the right side and roof were torn off, showing the empty stretchers. The dead woman was lying face downward on the tram rails at the base of the standard, and the uncon-scious body of the girl, clad in a night-dress, was sprawled across her body. The girl's mother lay huddled up un-conscious on one side of her, and the unconscious ambulance attendance was on the other. An experienced ambulance man said it was the worst street accident he had ever witnessed. Urgent Case; Driver Was Hurrying Clement Hocking, the driver of the ambulance, said:—"As the girl was an urgent case, I was hurrying along North terrace to the Adelaide Hospital, sounding my hooter all the way. The sedan motor car swerved across in front of me as I was about to pass it. The right front mudguard of the car and the left rear side of the ambu-lance struck, and the ambulance swung into the tram standard." "Terrific Crash" Describing the scene when the am-bulance struck the standard, an eye-witness said:—"There was a terrific crash; the ambulance seemed to fly to pieces, and several passengers fell on to the road. There was an ambu-lance man, who fell out of the back, and two elderly women and a girl out at the side. The girl was lying with her head against the ironwork of the standard, and the other women were lying huddled near it." Car Driver's Version The driver of the motor car, Claude Alfred Richards (50), company direc-tor, of the firm of T. J. Richards, Ltd., motor body builders, Keswick, was uninjured. He said that as he was driving along North terrace to-wards the city he heard the warning signal of the approach of the ambu-lance. He thought that the ambu-lance driver intended to pass him on the left side, and pulled over towards the middle of the roadway to give him room. Just as the ambulance passed him it hit the tram standard, and there was a pitiful sight as the patient, two women, and the ambulance men were flung from the shattered vehicle. The rear of the ambulance then swung around, said Mr. Richards, hitting his right front mudguard.