by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”
There is an article headlined “The Taradale Car Crash” in the March-April 1969 Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 15, No. 7. It is described as an “adapted version” of an article written by Henk Hinfelaar and Claude Elmes of New Zealand Scientific Space Research that appeared in that organization’s newsletter Spaceview. It concerns a car accident in Taradale, New Zealand, a suburb of the Northeastern city of Napier, involving two young men who reported that a UFO was the cause. According to Hinfelaar and Elmes, not only did the young men report this to police, but the owner/driver of the car gave the same story to his insurance company, and it was used as a defense by him in a court of law.
According to Hinfelaar and Elmes, the story first appeared in the September 15, 1968, Auckland Sunday News. They describe it as being “slightly exaggerated” as the witnesses refused to talk to reporters and the reporter who wrote the story did so using “sources other than those involved in the car crash.”
The authors describe having heard of the incident on September 10, when they received a letter from the young men, John Dow (19) and Paul Franklin (17). Dow and Franklin were told to get in touch with Elmes, and he “took charge.”
According to the authors, Dow and Franklin were driving around Taradale on Friday, September 6, when they saw lights hovering over the city dump. They described them as “dozens of reds, greens and blues darting around.” They then heard an explosion, and this was followed by “rumblings and vibrations which shook the car.”
The lights are described as then grouping together and leaving at this point. Dow and Franklin are said to have gotten the idea that they might have been watching flying saucers and to have “immediately” gone to the constable on duty to report this. The constable is described as having been “interested” but “non-committal” and not to have commented.
According to the authors, Dow and Franklin returned to the same area the next night and saw nothing. Then, on Sunday, September 9, they reportedly saw an object that shot out “a beacon of light,” and they went to the Taradale police station to report it. According to Hinfelaar and Elmes, the officer on duty explained their sighting away as a “salt-impregnated cable” flashing because of wind, but Dow and Franklin said there was no wind.
Dow and Franklin are said, on Monday night, to have seen a glowing light that shot up into the sky (the reader is told they didn’t report it as “they were tired of being laughed at”) and then, Tuesday night, as they were driving in the area of the previous night’s sighting, they reportedly saw a “lighted object in the sky” that changed color from red to orange to blue and sent out a “beacon of white light.” They drove towards the light, and as they did, it went out of sight behind a cloud.
According to the authors, Franklin and Dow turned back towards Taradale. Franklin reportedly saw the object again through the rear window. It picked up speed and headed towards them glowing brilliantly white. Franklin alerted Dow, who turned and saw it, and Franklin yelled, “Bail out! It’s got us!” They both jumped out on the passenger side of the car, which was moving at 30-40 mph, and suffered scrapes and bruises.
The object was reportedly so bright at this point that Franklin, on his back, covered his eyes to avoid being blinded. It’s described as having hovered 2 feet above them before it “suddenly shot up into the sky.” Franklin and Dow described it as a “spheroid” around 2 1/2 feet in diameter. They said that while it glowed brightly, it did not cast any light. According to Hinfelaar and Elmes, “they had the impression of a translucent brilliance with the light pushing into the object.”
The driverless car is described as crashing into the doorway of a fruit shop and destroying a plate glass window. A crowd is said to have gathered and to have found Franklin and Dow, “badly frightened and shocked. . . calling out about the saucer which had attacked them.”
The rest of the article is about the investigation and is broken into 7 sections, each sub-headed according to the particular aspect being detailed. The first section is titled “The boys.”
The authors describe Franklin as being the “spokesman” for the two and as knowing something about the UFO subject. They say they asked him about this and that he told them he had read Inside the Flying Saucers by George Adamski and had found it “far-fetched.”
According to the authors, Dow and Franklin told them that they went to the hospital the next night, that the staff did not believe their story, and that they were kept waiting until, in the authors’ words, “their clothes were ‘sticking’ to them.” The two are also said to have gone to the Napier police station seeking protection after a reporter told them “what happens to flying saucer victims.”
Section ii details the accident scene. It begins with the report by the tow truck driver (said to have arrived half an hour after the accident and a quarter of an hour after the police) who said that Dow and Franklin were “swearing and cursing” about, in the authors’ words, “the flying saucer that had attacked them.” He said if it was all an act, it was a good one, and there was no evidence of drinking. He said the police seemed to accept Franklin and Dow’s story. An investigation four days after the crash is said to have revealed no skid marks and that there was a new door jamb and plate glass window at the fruit store.
In the section dealing with the car, it is identified as an Austin A55, Mark 1, 1957 model. Elmes is said to have “thoroughly” examined it and to have found the damage to the right front fender and the front axle assembly consistent with a head-on collision at a speed of 30-40 mph. The car is described as a “write-off.”
Section iv is titled “The Police,” and the officer in charge is described as “willing to discuss the matter with somebody who knew something about the subject.” However, according to the authors, there were orders that nobody else was to be given information because of a “crank” who “apparently called the station.”
The police are said to have put out the explanation that Dow and Franklin had seen a fireball even though the weather “did not cater for such phenomena.” The authors also mention that “a certain Wing Commander in Wellington” showed interest in the case and that four Canberras were seen in the area three days after the accident, whereas normally, Air Force planes were not seen there “for months on end.” They end the section saying that Napier Constable Barry Martin-Bus said that when he got to the accident scene, he found Franklin and Dow’s story “sensible and logical.”
In the remaining sections, the key points are that the authors found that Dow’s insurance company, with the aid of the police report, found no reason to doubt Dow’s story, and that the reckless driving charge against Dow was dismissed by the Magistrate’s Court at Napier. According to the authors, the Magistrate conceded that Dow had been worked up into a state of mind that led him to his actions after being distracted by something, but the Magistrate was far from accepting that he had been attacked by a flying saucer. He had this to say: “Most of these lights people see have a natural cause and “the flying saucer in hot pursuit” might have been the lights of a car coming around the corner.”