Coroner’s Court WATERSIDER’S DEATH IN RAILWAY YARDS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29270, 30 July 1960, Page 17

Coroner’s Court WATERSIDER’S DEATH IN RAILWAY YARDS

A partly deaf watersider; Roland Charles May, aged 49. whose body was found beside sets of rails in the Lyttelton railway yards, near the steamer express wharf, on the evening of June 7 was found by the Christchurch Coroner (Mr E. B. E. Taylor) to have died from shock due to multiple injuries, suffered when he was run over by a rake of carriages. The inquest was concluded in the Coroner’s Court yesterday. Hugh Galbraith, a watersider. said he was walking off the ferry wharf and passing the Union Steamship Company’s office when he heard a cry of distress, and saw several waggons being shunted on to the wharf. He said he found May’s body by the set of lines where the train had passed. Edward George Wilson, the engine driver, said shunting had just been completed and the waggons uncoupled when Galbraith informed the shunter of the accident. Marks showed that the body had been dragged 15 yards, he said. Visibility at the time was poor, with heavy rain, said Wilson. He said he gave two short blasts of the whistle as the carriages began to move off. Constable D. J. J. Back, of Lyttelton, said he found May’s body lying between the rails. It appeared that May, who was hard of hearing, had been taking a short cut across the railway yards. The area was poorly lit. Peter Alfred Scott said Mav was slightly deaf in one ear and had a hearing aid, but did not use it while working. Rubbish Collector Killed A Christchurch City Council rubbish collector, Patrick Joseph Doyle, aged 50, who was knocked down by a motor cycle while engaged in house-to-house collection in Stanbury avenue, Spreydon, on the afternoon of May 27 was found by the Coroner to have died later that day in the Christchurch Hospital from fractures of the skull and hemorrhages into the brain resuling from the accident. Brian Lester Moore, aged 20. a student, said that while riding his motor-cycle along Stanbury avenue he saw the refuse truck parked in the middle of the road and slowed down as he approached it. He said one of the men carting the rubbish to the truck saw him and called out to another man. “As he had seen me I carried on to pass the truck, travelling at about 20 miles an hour, when a man came out from behind the truck. I had no time to avoid him,” said the witness. He said he fell off his motor cycle in braking to try to miss Doyle. Rex Ernest Mijes, who was collecting rubbish with Doyle, said he was on the edge of the footpath as the motor cycle approached, and Doyle was standing on the platform at the back of the truck. He saw Doyle step off on to the roadway and yelled out: “Hold it,” but Doyle walked into the motor cyclist’s path. "In my opinion the accident was Doyle’s fault as he seemed to have his eye on me and did not look before stepping out from behind the truck,” the witness said. The driver of the truck, Norman Granger McAliece, said he had stopped the vehicle towards the middle of the roadway. He said

he thought at the time that the motor-cyclist was travelling too fast. Cyclist Killed An accident in which Alexander Suttie. aged 82, was knocked off his bicycle by a motor car being driven by Paul Frederick Fuller, occurred shortly after another following motorist had checked Fuller’s speed because he “thought he was travelling too fast,” according to evidence. Suttie was found to have died on May 18. nine days after the accident, from bronchial pneumonia associated with multiple injuries suffered when his cycle was struck by Fuller’s car in Moorhouse avenue, at its intersection with Selwyn street. In evidence Fuller said he slowed down approaching Selwyn street There did not appear to be any traffic crossing the intersection so he accelerated. “I was almost across the intersection when I saw a man immediately in front of my car. I turned right sharply but was unable to avoid him,” he said. John Wyndham Andrews, a company director, gave evidence that he checked Fuller's vehicle, which was travelling in front of his. at 32 miles an hour for some distance. It did not slow down over intersections and was still travelling about 33 miles an hour when it hit the cyclist. He did not know whether the cyclist had lights. The witness said the cyclist would have had time to get across the intersection if the motorist had been travelling ait a safe speed. Suicide Verdicts Mary Louisa Tomson, aged 80, was found to have committed suicide at her home in Reserve terrace. Lyttelton, on or about May 26, death resulting from asphyxia due to carbon monoxide poisoning. WaMer Alec Baker, aged 62. was found to have committed suicide at Lake Station, Waikari. on May 23, the cause of death being fractures of the skull and cerebral lacerations.