"SEVERAL MEN HURT Two soldiers were killed and one seriously injured when the Army lorry in which they were travelling from Trentham Military Camp to Belmont left the road in the Belmont Hills and plunged down a 400 ft bank into the Belmont Stream shortly after 8 o'clock this morning. Other occupants, who received bruises and minor injuries, were admitted to the Hutt Hospital and the Trentham Military Hospital for treatment and observation. The 18 soldiers in the party were from the main ordnance department at Trentham and were going to daily duty at the military post in the Belmont Hills.
The list of casualties is as follows:— KILLED. Pte. R. Cameron, Wellington. DIED FROM INJURIES. L/Cpl. T. R. Beach, Richmond, Nelson, who died after admission to hospital. ...
The truck, which was driven by Corporal Prier, who was accompanied in the cab by Sergeant Claridge, was proceeding up Hill Road to the Belmont Military Camp. While the truck was passing a taxi drawn up on the inner bank, the off-side front wheel subsided in soft earth near the bank, and the truck, a three-ton transport, crashed through thick undergrowth and bush to the bed of a stream 400 feet below the road.
The soldiers who received only minor injuries had miraculous escapes. The canvas canopy on the rear of the vehicle was crushed and broken as the truck first rolled, but the vehicle's high sides prevented those sheltered in the back from more serious injury. As the truck first rolled, one occupant, according to an eye-witness, was thrown high in the air, while others were thrown out as it rolled further through the undergrowth.
One soldier who was thrown out before the truck reached the stream hit the water several seconds before the vehicle, so great was the force with which he was impelled. He suffered only minor injuries.
Ambulances, both civilian and Army, were summoned immediately by the taxi-driver, Mr. A. Alexander, and on the arrival of the first vehicle one man was hauled by stretcher and ropes to the road. The other injured men were reached from the Western Hutt Road, 1000 yards away, a small track leading to the crashed vehicle.
Immediately on receipt of the news of the accident, the authorities at Trentham sent a rescue party with ambulances and the necessary gear and tackle. At the scene of the accident an Army vehicle was drawn up to the bank and ropes were connected to the two vehicles to assist in the hauling up of stretchers.
Eight soldiers who received only minor injuries climbed to the road and were attended to in a nearby house, while another three assisted in the rescue of the injured personnel until relieved." [Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 82, 5 October 1945, Page 8]
