An auto accident occurred yesterday afternoon on the road between Chinkiang and_ this city which may have resulted in serious injury to a number of people. An autobus and a two seated Ford had left Kwa Dzau, across the Yangtze from Chinkiang, and started off for Yangchow the bus proceeding along a road which in places is not over 20 ft. wide. The driver of the smaller car tried to pass the bus. causing the latter, a four seated truck to drive precipitately down a steep embankment and to turn over on its side in a narrow canal three to four feet deep. The occupants, soaked and covered with mud, had to be lifted out from above and carried up on shore on the backs of coolies. They were then taken to Yangchow and those injured placed in beds in the station at this end of the road.
Fortunately all had escaped with minor injuries, the most serious being a broken nose sustained by a Chinese merchant. Miss Joy Tatum of the Baptist Mission in this city, was in the bus when the accident occurred and was shaken up but not otherwise injured.
A two hour schedule is carried on between the two cities throughout the day, by a number of Ford auto trucks and cars. There has been much complaint against the chauffeurs for driving in a reckless manner. A week ago a_ six-year old child was knocked down and it was thought for awhile that the little boy had received internal injuries of a serious nature. Several months ago a small girl peddling on the road was run over causing an extensive laceration of the scalp, a dislocated collar bone and fracture of upper and lower bones of the right leg. She is still in the hospital. It is hoped that thoss in charge of the auto service will take proper steps to dispense with reckless driving and that without more serious accidents happening to bring this matter home to them.
The auto road is to have a surface of coarse gravel. The broken stone is being conveyed by water buffaloes drawing the eld fashioned two wheeled carts and as the auto rushes past one is reminded of the quaint contrast between the old and the new.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.