When I was a child in the late ’40s my father would sit my sister and me on the back of his side-less tabletop truck with a rope strung across the back for us to hold onto. There was only room in the cabin for him, my mother and the dog. We survived, but I look back in horror at the disregard for safety shown. It was legal!
Others in Helensburgh did not fare so well.
1952 was a year of bushfires not seen for many years. A family living at the corner of Lawrence Hargrave Drive came to grief after an unsafe truck incident. The truck was an old army truck from World War II. The cabin had no doors. There was a running board for passengers to stand on.
A group of three adults and a two-year-old piled onto the truck, with the 18-year-old standing on the running board to try to escape the bush fire coming down from Woronora on January 25, 1952.
As they drove to the Ampol garage, a wall of fire came across the road, burning the passenger standing on the running board. She required six weeks in Coledale Hospital and skin grafting at Prince Alfred to recover.
The worst incident occurred a week later when there was a bushfire at Darkes Forest.
A truck had been delivering sheets of plaster in Helensburgh. Men piled onto the tabletop open-back of this truck to go to the fire.
Visibility was poor due to the smoke. The truck took a curve badly and went onto an embankment. A man was thrown off the truck – he hit a telegraph pole and was killed instantly.
What a disaster.
We must be thankful that we now have very strict laws on motor vehicle safety. It’s brought down the death and injury rate from motor accidents a lot. As you fasten your seatbelt, think about how fortunate we are to have the road and motor vehicle safety regulations that we have.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
By Dr Lorraine Jones is the vice-president of Helensburgh and District Historical Society.
