Coroner’s Court Elderly Man’s Death In Collision With Car

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28750, 22 November 1958, Page 7

Coroner’s Court Elderly Man’s Death In Collision With Car

Driving along Barbadoes street, between the river Avon and Bealey avenue, at 6.30 p.m. on July 30, Colin William Pritchard saw an old man pushing a bicycle appear on the road in front of him, but hq was not able to stop before hitting the man’s cycle, the Coroner’s Court was told yesterday afternoon. Pritchard said he applied his brakes, but the man was thrown into the side of his car. The court was holding an Inquest into the death of William John Taylor, who died on August 2, aged 73. The Coroner (Mr A. T. Bell) found that Taylor died from heart failure following multiple injuries to the brain and head suffered when he was struck by Pritchard’s car on July 30. Roy Henry Burgess said that in the late afternoon of July 30 he saw Taylor carrying a bag, containing two bottles of beer, in the Star and Garter Hotel. Later, he was sitting in his home in Barbadoes street when he heard a car breaking outside. He went outside and found Taylor lying on top of a bicycle suffering from head injuries, said witness. Constable N. T. Steer said when he arrived at the scene of the accident the car and bicycle had been moved. Broken beer bottle glass was lying on the road. Dr. K. P. Sanders said he examined Taylor on his arrival at; Christchurch Public Hospital and found him deeply comatose. Taylor was suffering from head injuries and remained unconscious until he died on August 2. Boy’s Death Run over by a car after being thrown from his bicycle in Papanui road on July 9. Alan Kevin Norwood, aged 16. died three days later in hospital. The Coroner found Norwood died from respiratory failure following skull fractures and cerebral lacerations suffered in the accident. Cyril Campbell Steel said that at 5.15 p.m. on July 9 he was

parking his car in Papanui road, near Church lane, about 5.15 p.m. He was locking the right front door of his car when he heard a crash. He looked up to see a youth falling from a bicycle into the path of a car. The driver of the car stopped, but not before its left front wheel had passed over the youth. Steel said the first crash he heard must have been the youth colliding with his door. He did not know how the youth came to hit the car. Maxwell Dorcntz Neumann said he was driving north-west on Papanui road. Thirty yards from Church lane he heard a metallic sound and then saw Norwood falling on to the road directly in front of his car. He applied his brakes, then felt a bump. When he got out, Norwood was underneath the car. Along with some bystanders he lifted the car bodily from the youth. Gerald Lawrence Hughes said he was driving along Papanui road in a north-west bound stream of traffic. Cyclists were moving along inside the line of traffic. He saw a car door opening and then saw a youth hit the door and get flung through the air. Dr. Sanders said Norwood's injuries were consistent with his having been run over by a car. Other Verdicts The Coroner found that Winifred Amy Anderson, aged 20, died on August 2 from respiratory failure following a fracture of the skull and cerebral contusions suffered when she was knocked from her bicycle in Blenheim road at 11.15 p.m. that day, by a car driven by Donald Escott Besley. James Abel Scarlett Jackson, aged 44, was found to have died on September 13 from multiple injuries received when he fell from a truck in Keighjeys road, Bromley. The Coroner found that Herbert Charles Williamson, aged 52. committed suicide on or about September 30.