MOTOR-CYCLIST’S DEATH

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27094, 18 July 1953, Page 4

MOTOR-CYCLIST’S DEATH

COLLISION WITH HORSE

CORONER’S VERDICT AT INQUEST

A verdict was returned yesterday by the Coroner (Mr E. B. E. Taylor) that Desmond Joseph Marsh, aged 35, died on May 29 from respiratory failure associated with cerebral contusions and lacerations, the injuries being suffered when the motor-cycle he was riding on the Main North road near Chaneys collided with a horse owned bv Ivan Ernest Miller. Sergeant R. F. Leith conducted proceedings for the police at the inquest. Ivan Ernest Miller, of Spencerville road. Chaneys, said he put his hack in the paddock at the rear of his home on May 28 and securely fastened the gate. He got the hack back from the police on the morning of May 29. He found that the gate had been broken open. There was a cow in the paddock the previous evening and it, too, had gone in the morning. He did not know who owned the cow and he did not put it on the road because he thought it might cause an accident. His hack was a quiet one and would not have gone on the road if the gate had not been broken open. John Patrick Crannitch. a driver, said he was returning to Christchurch from Rangiora on the morning of May 29 when a motor-cyclist passed him at moderate speed near Chaneys. Witness saw sparks ahead and thought they were from a cigarette, but he found the motor-cyclist, badly injured, lying on the road. A horse was close by. Constable J. Thompson, of Belfast, said he was notified of the accident shortly alter 6 a.m. on May 29. The motor-cycle was 40 feet further' on from where the motor-cyclist was lying. A horse, which was* close by, had a cut on one shoulder and was lame but was not badly injured. Other Verdicts Other verdicts returned by the Coroner were:—

James Augustus Roach, aged 41, died at Lyttelton on May 5 from fractures of the skull and lacerations, the ininjuries being self-inflicted when he discharged a .22 calibre rifle. Mrs Eileen Chapman, aged 64, died on May 23, and that she committed suicide by taking poison.