MOTOR FATALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 57, 8 March 1932, Page 10

MOTOR FATALITY.

NEGLIGENT DRIVING ALLEGED COMMENTS BY CORONER. Tint negligent driving was responsible for a fatal accident which occurred at the intersection of Williamson Avenue and Ariki Street, on January 25 last, was the opinion expressed by Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., at the conclusion of the inquest concerning the death of Sidney Valentine Mack, aged 50. Mack died from injuries received when the car in which ho was a passenger was in collision with a motor truck. Giving evidence yesterday afternoon a son of the deceased, Milton Harold Mack, who was also in the car, said the car was travelling down Ariki Street at a speed of not under 30 miles an hour. The motor truck appeared to be travelling at about the same speed. It was witness' opinion that a wheel of the car collapsed when the driver swerved sharply to the left in attempting to avoid a collision.

David Hamilton Young expressed the opinion that the truck was travelling at an ordinary rate of speed, but the car was moving at from 35 to 40 miles an hour, and appeared to be out of control.

Evidence concerning the condition of the brakes of the car was given by Arthur Reece Miluer. The hand brake, he said, did not appear to> be effective, and the foot 'brake was in poor condition.

Prank Herbert Lester, a passenger in the car, said that the car was travelling at only about twelve miles an hour. He admitted that he had not had much experience in judging speed. Tho driver of the car, Frank Victor Lester, was about to enter tho witness box to give evidence when the coroner suggested that it would not be advisable for him to do so.

In finding that the deceased had died from pneumonia following shock caused by injuries received in the accident, Mr. McKean said that the evidence showed that the car in which Mack had been a passenger had apparently not been in a safe condition to drive, that it had approached the intersection at an excessive speed and that the driver had failed to observe the offside rule. "Under these circumstances, of course," said Mr. McKean, "I must find that the car was negligently driven by Lester."