Coroner’s Court Verdicts On Deaths In Five Accidents

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 13

Coroner’s Court Verdicts On Deaths In Five Accidents

Inquests into the deaths of five persons after road accidents between May and October last year were held before the Christchurch Coroner (Mr A. T. Bell) yesterday. Sergeant A. J. McPhee and Constable G. A. Lithgow conducted the proceedings for the police. Concluding the inquest into the death of Samuel James Lee, aged 66. who died on May 6. the Coroner found that Lee had died as the result of injuries received after he was struck by a car on the Main North road about five miles north of Amberley. The Coroner found the cause of death was multiple head injuries suffered when Lee was struck by a car allegedly driven by Albert Keith Burrows. Evidence was given that two cars had been involved in a collision and that another car had subsequently struck one of the cars involved in the collision.

Rodger Callaghan Kingsbury, a former constable in the motor accidents inquiry office at the Christchurch Central Police Station, said he found Lee lying in the centre of the road when he was called to the scene of the accident. Lee was dead.

Kingsbury said that he Interviewed Burrows in the Christchurch Public Hospital on May 11. Burrows declined to make a statement but admitted he was the driver of a badly damaged car found at the scene of the accident. To the Coroner, the witness said it was alleged that Burrows was the driver of the car which struck Lee. Cyclist's Death

Constable W. R. Woolman, giving evidence concerning the death of William Copland Beck, aged 67, on May 4, said that he was called to the intersection of Opawa and Ensor roads. The driver of a car involved in a collision with a cycle ridden by Beck, said that he had been watching the lights of an oncoming car and had not seen the cyclist until he was in front of the car, coming from his left. The driver of the car, Kevin Bruce Walker, declined to make a written statement

The Coroner found the cause of death to be fractures of the skull and cerebral lacerations caused when Beck was struck by a car driven by Kevin Bruce Walker. Girl Cyclist’s Death

He was driving a car south in Wairakei road across the intersection of Grahams road at dusk when a girl on a cycle appeared in front of his car, lit-uip by the headlights, said Francis Joseph Keith Kenyon, aged 24, a salesman, when the inquest into the death of Suzanne Margaret Paulsen, aged 14, who died on October 3, was concluded. Kenyon said he put on his brakes but the girl cyclist hit the front of bis car and he was temporarily blinded by broken glass. John Ola Paulsen, brother of the girl, said he and his sister were riding their bicycles north along Wairakei road. They both had

lights on their bicycles. He was in front of his stater by a few yards. He heard a scream and then saw his sister and her bicycle in the air.

The witness said he could not understand bow bis sister came to be on the wrong side of the road. She might have hit a hole in the road and have been thrown off balance. He was aware of this bole but did not see his sister hit it.

Elsie Kaye Lee. a married woman, said she saw the girl and her brother ride past just before the accident. The boy had a light on his cycle but the girl did not. The coroner found the cause of death was shock and hemorrhage due to multiple injuries received when the girl was struck by Kenyon's car. Motnr-scooter Rider The Coroner found that the death of Wendy Grace Watson, aged 23. a nursing sister, was due to fractures of the skull and lacerations of the brain caused when the motor-scooter she was riding was involved in a collision with a car driven by Stanley Murray Wardle, aged 23. a watersider. on the morning of September 22. Wardle gave evidence that he was travelling along Linwood avenue and slowed when he came to the inter, section of England street. He saw no traffic coming on his right, accelerated and glanced to his left he then saw a motor-scooter “coming right at me.” Witness said he slammed on his brakes and swerved but struck the motor-scooter a glancing blow. He stopped his car and found the rider and the scooter lying in the road. He arranged for the ambulance and police to be called. Pinned Under Car The cause of the collision between his car and that driven by Barry Harwood Davis, aged 18, was the failure of Davis's car to give way to the right said Colin James Chambers, a farm manager, of Leeston, when the inquest into the death of Davis was concluded. The Coroner found that Davis's death was due to asphyxia by compression when his car was overturned after colliding with the car driven by Chambers at the intersection of the Springs-ton-Rolleston and Waterholes roads on September 23, last. Gaye Christine Verlander, aged 16. of Rolleston, said she was a passenger in Davis’s car. It was travelling about 40 m.p.h. She could remember no collieion. but could recall being assisted from a water race.