Janet Meikle, 1870-8/9/1906.

FATAL MOTOR ACCIDENT. 

Timaru. A distressing and fatal motor car accident occurred here on Saturday afternoon. Mr and Mrs John Meikle were returning home from town in a car, the wife, an expert driver, as usual being in charge. When descending a steep and narrow road on the side of a cutting near the house the car went over the bank and capsized over a wire fence. Meikle was pitched out and had his right thigh broken. Mrs Meikle was pinned under the car and suffocated by the weight on her chest. Some time elapsed before the husband crawled within the hearing of an old maid servant at the house. Deceased was about 38 years of age and had one child, a girl of four. Meikle was well-known as a driver of Cobb and Co’s Coaches in the early days, and subsequently as the proprietor of the Grosvenor Hotel.   -Dunstan Times, 10/9/1906.

FATAL CAR ACCIDENT.

DISTRESSING CIRCUMSTANCES. 

Great sorrow and sympathy were aroused in Timaru on Saturday evening by the news that Mrs John Meikle had lost her life, by a motor car accident, in which her husband also had his right thigh broken. This being the first serious motor accident in the district, people at first found it difficult to credit the news, but, unfortunately, it was only too true. 

The accident was simple enough in itself, though its results were deplorable. Mr Meikle has had a motor car for some time, an 8 h.p. De Dion, Mrs Meikle always drove it, and expert in its management, and a particularly cool driver. They came to town on Saturday afternoon, were returning to their home at the head of Washdyke Valley, and were within the farm when the accident happened. Between the public road up the valley and Mr Meikle's house a private road has been made, part of which is a side cutting down a spur. This part of the road is both narrow and steep, and it appears that in going down this descent the car swerved towards the bank or upper side, and in correcting this Mrs Meikla turned the wheel a fraction. too much and this sent the car off the embankment. Along the foot of this runs a wire fence, and after scraping along the fence for some yards the car capsized over it into a ploughed paddock. Mr Meikle was pitched out, sustaining fracture of the thigh, while Mrs Meikle was pinned beneath the car, the step lying across her chest, so that she could not breathe, and presently died of suffocation. 

The spot where the accident happened was not in sight of the house, no one was within sight or hearing, and Mr Meikle, in his crippled condition by desperate and painful effort crawled towards the house until he could make the maid servant hear his coo-ee. When she came he sent her for a spade, to dig the earth from beneath Mrs Meikle, to release her if possible, but the girl could do nothing effectual, and Mr Meikle sent for the ploughman, who by his direction got a rope and hauling on this with the horses from the road, took off the weight of the car so that Mrs Meikle's body could be removed. The unfortunate woman was then dead. 

The next requirement was surgical attention for Mr Meikle, and the telephone at Washdyke was brought into use as soon as possible, and the family doctor, Dr Gabites, and also Dr Gibson were rung up and both went out. Dr Gabites took charge of the case and in the meantime is treating Mr Meikle at his home, a trained nurse being taken out for the purpose.

Mr and Mrs Meikle have only one child, a little girl of between four and five. Usually the child accompanies them in their trips to town, but on Saturday she did not do so. 

The deceased was a Miss Wright, and connected with the Parr, Gould and Kerslake families, well known early settlers in the Pleasant Point district.

The car, we may add, was an 8 h.p. De Dion, and was in perfectly good order; the accident being attributable to a trifling error in steering that would have been of no moment had not the road been so narrow and steep where it happened. An inquest will be held to-day.   -Timaru Herald, 10/9/1906.

SOUTH CANTERBURY AUTOMOBILE CLUB

MEMBERS of the above club are requested to attend (without Cars) the Funeral of the late Mrs Meikle, which leaves her late residence at 1.45 p.m., THIS DAY.   -Timaru Herald, 11/9/1906.

Timaru Cemetery.