Coroner Asks Questions About Car’s Warrant

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30364, 13 February 1964, Page 12

Coroner Asks Questions About Car’s Warrant

A day after a warrant of fitness was issued by Islington Motors for a 1937 American car it ran off the road and the two men in it were killed, it was said in the Coroner’s Court in Christchurch yesterday. The accident could have been caused by a fault in the steering, which should have been detected, a witness told the Coroner (Mr A. T. Bell). Another witness said that the two men were reaching a level of intoxication at which their ability to drive was deteriorating The Coroner found that Tewharau Walker, also known as Haki Te Ripa, aged 39, and Raniera Warihi, also known as Danny or Dave Walsh, aged 44, died on on November 29 at Porter’s Pass from injuries suffered when a car driven by Walker went over a bank.

George Edward Palmer, a senior vehicle inspector, said that he examined parts which had been removed from the wrecked car. The steering mechanism was worn and dangerous.

T o the Coroner the witness said the defects should have been picked up when an examination was made for a warrant of fitness. He assumed that a proper examination had not been carried out.

Sergeant J. E. O’Regan, questioned by the Coroner, said the warrant was issued by Islington Motors, a day before the accident. Palmer, recalled to the stand, said that the Transport Department authorised gar-

ages to issue warrants of fitness after the premises had been inspected and the qualifications of the staff examined. The car was not up to warrant-of-fitness standard when the warrant was issued. The matter would be reported to the head office of the Transport Department, which had authority to suspend the right to issue warrants.

Douglas John Walker, a driver, said that on Saturday, November 30, he was driving from Lake Lyndon to Christchurch when about 4 p.m. he saw a wrecked car in a gully at Porter’s Pass. He found that two men had been thrown out. of the vehicle and had been dead for some time.

Plunged 309 ft Constable J. P. Larmer, of Darfield, said the car had failed to negotiate an easy left bend while climbing a fairly steep part of the road. It had plunged 309 ft. down a bank and had bounced on the rock face. The two men had been employed by the Railways Department at Cass. There were four broken halfgallon flagons of beer in the car. as well as an aluminium keg. Patrick James Packer, a garage proprietor at Springfield, said he was apparently the last man to see Walker and Wahiri alive when they called at his garage about 9.30 pm. on November 29. They appeared fit to drive. Denis James Hogan, a senior scientific officer employed by the Dominion Laboratory at Christchurch, said that alcohol in specimens from both bodies disclosed that the men were reaching a level of intoxication at which their ability to drive began to deteriorate.