A double decker bus, bound for St. Leonards, left Manly wharf at 10.38am with 45 passengers, mostly women, on board. As it rounded the final bend on the steep descent down Sydney Road to the Spit Bridge it swerved suddenly to the left and off the road, crashing through a safety fence and free-falling 20 feet to the bottom of a high stone wall, landing on its side.
In an amazingly efficient response, 40 ambulance personnel and 55 police arrived within 10 minutes. However, four people were killed and 33 injured.
All the deaths were tragic, but one was particularly so. Winifred Mary Fuller, who was just 21 years old, was pregnant with twins and was at full term. Her husband, who in another cruel twist was a bus conductor, explained that his wife had expected to be confined the previous Saturday.
Doctors had told her to report to the Mater Misericordiae on the Monday if the babies did not arrive at the weekend. She was enroute to the hospital when she and her unborn twins were killed. She also left a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. The family was living in a garage at Oxford Falls.
A coronial enquiry concluded that the deaths of the four women in the Spit Bridge bus crash had been accidentally caused. The coroner wrote: “I am of the opinion that the driver did not realise his speed was about 20mph, which appears to be excessive for a driver of his experience on this dangerous turn. However, I find that no culpable negligence has been proven, and I return a finding of accidental death.”
Richard Michell is the vice-president of the Manly, Warringah and Pittwater Historical Society and the secretary of Friends of Dee Why Lagoon. Visit mwphs.com and fodyl.asn.au respectively.