History Webs
For the Drakenstein Valley
Summary
A goods train crashes into a stationary car at a crossing less than 2 km from Paarl Station. Two women and a man killed.
Reference
Cape Times, 12 March 1914
Acknowledgements
Information and photographs sourced by Marlene Goosen of the Drakenstein Heemkring
F G Larkin
The local newspaper
reported that 500 pupils from La Rochelle and Girls'
High Schools joined a procession to the cemetery. As many residents of
the town attended the funeral.
Alice Hahn
Alice
Hahn also died in the crash.
The accident at The Gate, Suider Paarl 1914
One of Paarl's first fatal road
accidents. The accident occurred at 11 pm at The Gate, a
railway crossing between
Simondium and Paarl Station, when a goods train crashed into the rear
of the car, killing two teachers from the La Rochelle Girls' School in
Paarl. The passengers had been visiting in Franschhoek
and
were on their way back to Paarl.
Five people were involved in the accident: Miss FG Larkin, a teacher from England, Alice Hahn, the daughter of Rev Hahn, Fanie Grundlingh and Stoffel de Vos. and a driver, Mr Grobbelaar.
A reconstruction of the accidents suggests that the vehicle had passed through the first gate, then with the car still on the railway track, Fanie Grunglingh left the car to open the second gate. The car's rear was still on the railway tracks when the train crashed into it.
On impact, the three passangers where flung from the car. Alice Hahn's body was found near the wreckage, Miss Larkin's body near the point of impact. The badly injured Stoffel de Vos was found unconscious on the railway line.