Richard John Torrens
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Press cutting: accident at Cadnam, 3th October 1934

The Bournemouth Daily Echo
Monday, October 15, 1934

Lady Pulled clear Just in Time

Badly Injured

Husband and Son Also Hurt.

Mrs. Sarah E. Torrens, wife of Mr. John Morrison Torrens, of "Glenbower", Victoria Road, Ferndown, Dorset, was seriously injured on Saturday evening, when a car, driven by her husband, burst into flames after a collision at Cadnam cross-road, where many accidents have occurred in the New Forest. It was described by a resident as the worst crash at this danger spot since the Earl of Egmont was fatally injured.

Blazing petrol

Mr. Torrens was driving a small saloon car from the direction of Southampton, with his wife and son, Cecil. They reached Cadnam at about 7.15, and at the cross-roads came into collision with a large car driven by Mr. Walter Waterfield Bastone, of Baskerville Road, Wandsworth Common. The small car, with one of its doors torn off, swung into the Romsey road and ran into the near-side ditch. It came to rest leaning against the garden hedge. The boy was thrown out through the doorway, and Mrs. Torrens lay partly in the car and partly in the ditch, with blazing petrol pouring from the tank. Mr. Torrens scrambled out from the wreckage, and people living nearby, roused by the sound of the impact, rushed to the scene, and Mrs. Torrens was dragged away from the blazing car. She was suffering from a broken left leg, cuts on the head and face, and her right leg was burnt. Mr. Torrens was cut about he head, face, legs and hands. The boy escaped with a cut arm.

Mr. Bastone's car swerved to the left after the impact and ran through a hedge into a garden, knocking down a large notice board in its career. Mr. Bastone was not seriously injured, but there was a good deal of damage to the front of his car. The small car was completely destroyed, and was still burning three hours after the accident.

"Not a second too soon"

Apart from the motorists concerned, no one actually witnessed the accident. One of the first to arrive on the scene, however, was Miss Joyce, who lives near the corner.

"We heard the crash indoors", she said, "and rushed out into the roadway. Mr Fred Hollands, the butcher opposite, dashed from his shop, and he and Mr. Edward Walters, of Cadnam, who had been calling on us, pulled the lady from the car. She was partly in the ditch underneath the car, and they were not a second too soon. They had barely dragged her clear when the flames went up, and no one could get near the car. If they had been half a second later she would have been burnt to death. It was very lucky there was some one about to help."

Miss Joyce added that a gentleman came along and rendered first-aid, and she and her cousin assisted. Then the Calmore ambulance arrived, and all the injured were taken to the Royal South Hants and Southampton Hospital.

Mr. Bastone's car and the wreckage of the other vehicle were later removed to Kibble's garage.

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Page's Author: Richard John Torrens
Document URI: www.torrens.org/Biography/SET/accident.html
Page first published: Saturday the 15th of August, 2015
Last modified: Tue, 18 Mar 2025 11:55:42 GMT
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