CRASH TO DEATH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1945, Page 4

CRASH TO DEATH

CAR PLUNGES INTO SEA

FALL OVER 280 FT. HIGH CLIFF O.C. SYDNEY. July 4. An open finding was given by the District Coroner. Mr. Cooksoh. at the inquest into the deaths of Mrs. Dorice RetaHack. 33. of Bondi. and Hedley John Barnes. 39, of Croydon, whose car crashed 2SO feet over a cliff into the sea at the foot of Mvuna Road. Dover Heights, on the night of May 26. •Mr. Cookson found that Mrs. Retallack and Barnes died from the effect of injuries to the head and body, received when their car crashed into the sea. "The evidence does not enable me to say how and by what means, accidentally or otherwise, the car crashed into the sea." he said. It was stated in evidence that Myuna Road was poorly lit and that Barnes might have mistaken it for another street. Skid marks suggested that he might have tried to bull up or, swerve the car just before "it crashed through a wooden fence on the cliff top. Evidence was given that Mrs. Retallack had been separated from her husband. Barnes, a business executive, was a married man with a family. Mrs. RetalJack's body floated to the surface the day after the tragedy. Barnes' body was recovered fronl the car by a diver.