CHRISTMAS DAY FATALITY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13236, 11 January 1941, Page 2

CHRISTMAS DAY FATALITY

COLLISION ON OROPI RO \D

CORONER’S FINDING INQUEST

A finding that death was due heart failure caused by enlarge t 0 of prostate gland accelerated* 5 b v eilt motor collision, was returned kl 8 Coroner (Mr C. T. McFarlane) « the inquest yesterday into the rid of Robert Tail Johnston, which 3 h curred at Thornecliff© Hospital ° C ' January 7 following injuries ° n ceived in a collision on the Road on December 25. opl Evidence of identification given by Kelvin Gone Johnston * S son of the dead man. who said t’w his father was 70 years of age at th time of his death. His health pri 0 ! to the accident was good. Witness saw him in hospital after the accident. He said he saw the other car approaching and by the speed ami the position of it. he knew the car in which he was travelling was goin» to be hit. His car was right in the drain and against the bank. Witness added that when his father told him this he was in full possession of his faculties. He was at first admitted to the Tauranga Public Hospital on December 25, and later, at Ins own request, he was removed to Thornecliffe private hospital, Dr. J. Mark consenting to the removal. I)octor's Ev idon ce

Dr. J. Mark said in evidence that at 11.30 a.m. on December 25 he wan called to Oropi to attend to Mr Johnston. He did not; get quite to the scene of the accident, but saw him in an amblilance a mile or two front where the collision occurred. He had a wound over the right side of the forehead and was suffering from a fracture of the skull. The lower right eye lid was torn almost completely away. Mr Johnston also had an enlarged prostate gland which caused him a great deal of pain. He did fairly well at first but had a sudden heart attack on January 7. His heart condition was not good at any stage after the accident. The cause of death, in the opinion of witness, would be heart failure caused by an enlargement of the progtate gland and' definitely accelerated by the accident.

To Mr FI. O. Cooney, who appeared for the driver of the other car, witness said the injuries themselves did not cause death, but they were definitely a factor. Mr Johnston had

a definite history of two physical disabilities and for two years before the accident he had been under treatment for heart trouble and an enlarged prostate gland. Alfred James Parkinson, a carrier and contractor, residing at Oropi, said, in evidence, that on the morning of December 25 he left home in his motor car to go to Te Puna. When he was proceeding, along the Oropi Road there was a collision between his car and a car driven by Mrs Johnston in which Mr Johnston was a passenger. As a result of the accident Mr Johnston received injuries and was later taken to the Tauranga Hospital in an ambulance.

“Whaft Nonsense”

Catherine Florence Johnston, wife of Mr Johnston, gave evidence to the effect that on December 25 she was driving a car from Tauranga to Qropi, her husband being seated beside her. As she was approaching a slight bend a collision occurred. Witness added that she must have been round the bend. She was travelling on her correct side of the road and she saw the other car approaching. Her husband also saw the car and he said, ‘‘That car’s going to hit us.” To this witness replied, “What nonsense, how can he?” as she was on her correct side of the road. When they first saw the car, and when this conversation took place, it was several chains away. At this stage Mr Cooney objected to what Mr Johnston had to say being given in evidence. Witness added that when her husband passed this remark her attention was £aken up with watching her own car and she did not see the approaching car again until her car was hit. It was the right front wheel and the right front door of her car which were hit, and when the collision occurred her car was on the edge of the drain on the left hand side of the roadway.