Mal Rowe wrote:

> I attach a scan of the news report in The Sun the following day. As

Richard says, I think Driver Middlemo later changed his recollection of the
cause of the event.

As a journalist by trade (but at primary school in Box Hill when that crash
happened; I don't remember it despite being an avid Sun reader then) I am
amazed how journalists back then could just go and interview the tram
driver in hospital, and the conductor, and even Robert Risson is in the
story!

Today (and for the past two decades) no journalist would be allowed
anywhere near anyone involved in such a crash. We'd certainly never get to
interview the driver --- all public and private agencies/companies today
have a strict ban on staff talking to media, and armies of spin doctors to
prevent any public comments about anything the public needs to know about.
Journalists aren't allowed through the doors of a hospital anywhere, let
alone at a bedside.

Also about that time, there was a trammie strike, but a driver called Tom
Pesteranovich and his connie broke the strike and took out a 64 tram. The
Sun made him the front page! He was interviewed out in Dandenong Road and
his photo at the controls of his W2 took up half the page. He was made an
inspector for his trouble, IIRC. And Bolte said of the strikers: "They can
march up and down until they're bloody well footsore.": Never forgotten
that story, or photo, or Tom's distinctive name!

--
david mcloughlin, New Zealand
"Holy writ requires unholy scrutiny."

>