From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Accident involving car 35-PK which overturned in a river near Vierzon, France.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 181\M10\ img160 | |
| Date | 14th August 1924 | |
| 35-PK COPY. Chateauroux, Indre, France, AJL1/Crm. 14.8.24. To Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} from A.J.Lidsey. I regret to have to report an accident to 35-PK. Shepard and Crofts took the car out yesterday, Wednesday, the 13th. August, for the afternoon run - Shepard driving. About an hour afterwards we had a 'phone message from Shepard to the effect that 35-PK was overturned in the river near Vierzon, and that they were in hospital. As 9-PK was on the road, we chartered a car from a garage here, and immediately went to Vierzon. We went to the hospital and found Shepard and Crofts in bed, Crofts having injured his right fore-arm badly, and bruised his face and head, and Shepard has cut his left thigh and head - the latter only slightly. They were both apparently thrown clear of the car, all their injuries being caused by landing in the river bed. Having ascertained that they were all right, we proceeded to the scene of the accident, and found the car lying on its off-side in a shallow river bed. The car had evidently turned over once or twice before coming to rest. The car was proceeding in the direction of Bourges and Vierzon, about 5 miles out of Vierzon. The accompanying sketch gives a rough idea of the scene of the accident, and was exactly as we found the car. No one witnessed the accident, and it is hard to imagine how it happened. Nothing at all on the car apparently broke or failed to cause the accident. We have examined the car for this. The car tracks shew no signs of a skid of any sort. I am enclosing Insurance Ticket for Provincial Insurance Co., filled in by someone who saw the car soon after the accident. This man will also vouch for the Eagle & British Dominions Co's Insurance Token No. 451 being on the car at the same time. The following man took the men to the Hospital; he was the first on the scene after the accident :- contd:- | ||