MOTOR SMASH.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18912, 29 January 1927, Page 6

MOTOR SMASH.

FARMER PINNED UNDER CAR.

INQUEST CONCLUDED

The inquest into the death of the late Thomas We!sh, aged 40 years, a Halswell farmer, was concluded before the Coroner, Mr H. A. Young, yesterday. Welsh was found dead on the morning of January 14th, lying under his car, which had overturned into a deep ditch on Lower Lincoln road. Mr Amodeo appeared on behalf of the relatives of the deceased, and Sergeant MacGregor watched proceedings on behalf of the Police. Dr. (Jool'e, medical practitioner at Lincoln, in evidence, stated that he answered a call to Halswell on © morning of the 14th, and on arm a > found a car capsized in a deep ditc n, and the driver dead. He could only reach the man's wrist, and ascertained by his pulse that the man was dead. It, was impossible to get to the body, but he was satisfied that the man had been dead some hours. From the appearance of the body, witness thought that the man's neck must have been broken. There was every indication ot the man having been killed the night before. As witness wa6 satisfied that th© driver was doad, and that ther6 was no possibility of the body being extricated for some hours, he left the Arthur John Birdling, farmer,, residing at Halswell, stated that, from information received, he went on to the road about 100 yards from his house, and saw the car overturned in the ditch, which was over 6 feet wide and 8 feet deep. The bottom of the car was wet, indicating that, as there had not been rain after 10 p.m. on the night previous, the accident had happened before that hour. Witness was present during the time the car was being taken from the ditch. It was about 6.40 a.m. when witness went out to the road. There was a large bruise on the back of the deceased s head, but apart from that there seemed nothing else the matter. In answer to Mr Amodeo, he said that the road round the hill fr,om Tai Tapu was winding. Constable Smithers. stationed at Lincoln, stated that he proceeded to the scene of the accident in answer to a summons about 7.30. He met the doctor there, and was told that the man was dead. It took abou,t two hours to get the car out of the ditch. Witness made enquiries aa to the deceased s movements after leaving Tai Tapu, but could not trace his having gone to any other place after he had left Tai Tapu. Mounted-Constable Griffin, stationed at Chri9tchurcli, stated that he arrived at the scene of the accident about 10 a.m. The body had been removed when

witness arrived. On examining the motor-car he found that it was in gear, | the lights switched off, but were in a working condition, and the hood, which appeared" to be down, was badly battered. Witness examined the body, and fourtd a bad bruise on the back of deceased's head, and several bruises about the temples and nose. The head seemed to fall away from the body when moved. From measurements taken of the marks made by Welsh's car, it appeared that he had taken a turn round the corner, and then, when about a chain along the road, lie took a sweep to his right again, missing a telegraph pole by about a foot. He had swerved off the metalling on to the grass. He took another turn to the centre of the road, and another sweep to his left on to the grass and into the ditch. The distance between the two 3werves was 47 feet, and from the post to the scene of the accident was 84 feet. The car was facing the direction from which deceased had come, and was upside down. Deceased must have been travelling at a good speed MacKenzie, hotel-keeper at Tai Tapu, stated that deceased called at his place about the middle of the afternoon of the 13th. He was then on his way to see about some cattle. He called in again on the way back. He stopped there for a few minutes and then went away. Witness did not know in which direction deceased went. The verdict was that Welsh died at Halswell on January 13th as a result of injuries received through ' his car overturning. -