TRUCK PLUNGES INTO RIVER
ONE MAN DROWNED; TWO RESCUED
(P.A.) GREYMOUTH, June 26.
One man was drowned and two others had a narrow escape when a motor-truck plunged over a 35-foot bank into the Mangles River, near Murchison, this morning. The accident occurred when the truck was passing another vehicle on a narrow portion of the highway.
The missing man, whose body has not yet been recovered, was Walter James Condell, 22, farmhand, single, of Nelson, formerly a naval rating, who was employed by Mr Thomas James, Four River Plains, in the Mangles valley. Condell was the driver of the truck, and accompanying him were two brothers, Thomas and Hugh Moynihan, farmers, of Four River Plains, Murchison. They were travelling from Murchison to Tutaki, in the Mangles valley. The river was in considerable flood at the time. The Moynihan brothers swam down river for about a chain until they were swept towards the bank, where they grasped foliage of a tree and were eventually rescued. They were tipped out of the truck, but it is thought that Condell did not get free of the vehicle and was injured when it landed in the river.
The motor-truck had been swept about half a mile down the river by nightfall. ,
Search parties, under the direction of Constable J. L. Moore (Murchison), were unable to find Condell's body, and they will resume operations tomorrow. By that time it is expected that the flood waters will have abated considerably.
Condell’s mother, who is a widow, lives at Nelson. -Ashburton Guardian, 27/6/1947.
Missing Man
No trace has yet been found of the body of Walter James Condell, the young man who was drowned when a truck left the road and crashed over a bank into the Mangles river, near Murchison, on June 26. The search for the body has been systematically conducted ever since, but without result. -Greymouth Evening Star, 31/7/1947.
Body Found
The body of Walter James Condell, who was drowned in a truck accident in the Mangles river on June 26, was discovered on Saturday by the Murchison police not far from the scene of the fatality. -Greymouth Evening Star, 13/8/1947.
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