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Gordon Bennett Motor Race 1903
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Leinster Leader, Saturday 11 July 1903 – Page 8.
MOTOR ACCIDENTS.
SOME MINOR CASUALITIES.
ACCIDENTS ON THE CURRAGH.
Now that the great Motor Race is over and popular interest relieved of the tension of which it was to cause, accounts are beginning to arrive of the minor accidents attendant upon it. As yet particulars are available of only three of these, which took place on the Curragh. The most serious was that in which a valuable mare was killed. This animal, which was bought for 800 guinneas 18 months ago from Lord Fermoy by Mr. Samuel Watson, was being led along the road to the stud farm at Tully on Tuesday week. It was in charge of a groom. On the way, the groom saw a tourist car approach. He put up his hand to stop it, but the driver of the car paid no attention to the signal, and continued on his way. The mare taking fright, turned on the road, the motor crashed into it, and broke its leg. The motor pulled up momentarily, but the driver, with a gross disregard to the seriousness of the accident and of his responsibility, set off at full speed again before he could be properly identified. The mare, which had a foal at foot, had to be shot later on by the Kildare police. The sympathy of all true sportsmen will be extended to the owner in this unhappy occurrence. Whilst the conduct of the driver of the motor is deserving of the strongest reprobation.
TWO PEOPLE INJURED.
A man and a boy had an extremely narrow escape on Thursday
week, an are at present undergoing treatment in the Drogheda Memorial
Hospital on the Curragh. About 1 a.m. on the day named, a private
touring car came into collision with them on Ballymany Hill and knocked
them down. The man was dragged partially under beneath it, his left
knee was badly torn, and he received a very severe shock. The boy
had his left leg injured, and his scalp lacerated. In striking contrast
to the owner of the car in the last case, the gentleman driving the
car immediately pulled up, and conveyed the two injured persons to
the Hospital in his car.
M. GABRIEL AND THE SHEEP.
One day last week, whilst going over the course preparatory
to the Gordon-Bennett Race, Mr. Gabriel, the famous French driver,
struck into a sheep on the road between Ballymany and Kildare. He
was going at a terrific speed at the time, and the sheep was literally
cut in two. With admirable thoughtfulness, M. Gabriel, on arriving
at Kildare, informed the police of the accident, and gave his name
and address. By the end of the week, the head ranger on the Curragh,
Mr. J. S. M’Elveen, discovered that the sheep belonged to Mr.
Farringdon, a County Wicklow grazier, and as soon as this information
was conveyed to him M. Gabriel forwarded the owner a cheque for 25s.,
the sum at which the sheep was valued.
Two other accidents in Kildare are also reported. In one a
boy crossing the Square at Kildare was knocked down by a touring car
and had his collar-bone broken. The owner of the car drove off before
he could be identified. The boy was detained in the infirmary:- In the
second case, a lad named Arthur Jones, who was watching the Gordon-Bennett
Race from the top of a tree at Kildare, fell to the ground, sustaining
severe injury to the back.
COLLISION WITH A COW.
The members of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland
on Monday commenced their tour northwards to Castlewellan. Leaving
Dublin in the morning, some forty or fifty motorists proceeded in
their machines, both racers and touring cars, to Newcastle, Co. Down,
for the purpose of taking part in the hill-climbing and other competitions
on Tuesday at Castlewellan. Between Dundalk and Newry, Mr. Ocks, of
London, driving a 16 h.p. Napier, collided with a cow. His machine
was thrown over an embankment into a bog, but fortunately he and his
friends succeeded in jumping out and escaped without injury.