MOTOR-CYCLIST’S DEATH

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27466, 28 September 1954, Page 8

MOTOR-CYCLIST’S DEATH

POLICE INQUIRIES AT ROTORUA (New Zealand Press Association) ROTORUA, September 27. The Rotorua police are investigating the death of a young man whose body was found early yesterday morning beside his motor-cycle on the Whakatane highway close to the town. The cycle had run into the rear of a small truck parked by the road. Death occurred instantly, but the police believe the body had been moved a considerable distance when they arrived at 2 a.m.

The motor-cyclist was Mr - Ronald John Clark, a poultry farmer, of Rotorua.

The accident apparently occurred about 1.45 a.m., when Mr Clark was returning to Rotorua from a friend’s house.

The truck, when the police found it, was 3ft off the bitumen on the metalled shoulder of the, road. The body lay beside the motor-cycle, the head by the rear wheel, on the other side of the bitumen.

Some distance away was a patch of blood. It had no apparent connexion with the accident. Samples have been taken for analysis, and it is understood to be regarded as doubtful that the blood is that of the dead man. The truck was abandoned on the isolated stretch of road the previous evening when a tyre blew out. The owner told the police yesterday morning that the truck was further off the bitumen than it was when he left it. When the motor-cycle struck the rear of the truck, the police reason, the rider would have been thrown

over the cab to land on the road beyond, and the body must have been moved to the position in which it was found.