"PURE ACCIDENT"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 114, 16 May 1942, Page 6

"PURE ACCIDENT"

DEATH OF WOMAN

CRUSHED BY RUNAWAY PETROL WAGON

"I consider the whole unfortunate thing to have been a pure accident," said the Coroner. Mr. W. G. L. Mellish, at the conclusion of the inquest yesterday afternoon into the death of Catherine Stewart, aged 48, a domestic, who vvas killed on April 24 when a runaway petrol tank wagon overturned on her. The Coroner found that death was caused by crush injuries.

Commendation for William Gordon Gilbert, the driver of the petrol wagon, was expressed by the Coroner. "I think Gilbert exercised all the control that wa. possible in the circumstances," he said. "I think he was the victim of circumstances in that the braking system suddenly. and Unexpectedly broke down. Further, 1 think he is to be commended for the way he kept' his head and did his best to ! avoid causing injury to other persons. He tried to turn into Nairn Street, out did not see the deceased. He did all he possibly could to avert what might have been a very much more serious accident." Gilbert's evidence was that the truck weighed ten tons when fully loaded. That morning he went to the Brooklyn service station with 1055 gallons and discharged 215 there. He came down the hill in low gear at five to seven miles an hour until near Central Park when he heard a bang from the gearbox and the lever slipped into neutral. He found it was impossible to get the lever back into any gear and that the footbrake was ineffective. The handbrake was a holding brake, and, would not stop the wagon when it was moving with a load, and when he applied ii it. had no effect. The vehicle approached the intersection of Brooklyn Road with Willis and Nairn Streets at 50 miles an hour, and Gilbert decided to make a sharp right-hand turn up Nairn Street with the intention of "side hitting" a pole there, as he considered he» would have caused damage to property and possibly loss of life had he attempted to turn into Willis Street. The lorry swung round into Nairn Street, and as it did so turned over and hit the post. It was not until some time after he had arrived at the hospital that he knew a woman had been killed, said Gilbert. PREVIOUS TROUBLE. Questioned by Senior-Sergeant A. Barnes and by Mr. A. B. Biixton, who appeared for the Vacuum Oil Company Pty., Ltd., Gilbert said that he had previously had trouble with the gearbox of the wagon, when he had been unable to get the lever out of top gear. He had had no trouble with the other gears. He had heard that there had been trouble with the gears slipping out of engagement, but he could find out nothing definite about this. Once previously he had had trouble with the footbrake —a momentary loss of pressure through, the hydraulic system. Umberto Primo Calcinai, a Transport Department inspector, who examined the wagon after the accident, said that he had found a leak through the stoplight switch in the master cylinder of the hydraulic vacuum-servo footbrake. The result of this leak would be to make the footbrake ineffective, and he thought it quite possible that that breakdown was a sudden one. He found a break in part of the gearbox. Though all the gears could be selected satisfactorily on a bench test, it was possible for the lever to have got into such a position that the driver could not move it into engagement at the time of the accident. Evidence was given by two bystanders that the wagon, while "broadsiding" into Nairn Street, rolled over, probably assisted by the weight of petrol in it, and that it caught the woman as she was mounting the footpath. ■ ~~