Coroner’s Court Fisherman Wearing Waders Drowned In Waimakariri

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 25

Coroner’s Court Fisherman Wearing Waders Drowned In Waimakariri

An elderly fisherman, who had thigh waders tied to his waist with rope, stepped into a deep hole in the Waimakariri river while trying to recover a trout and was drowned, according to evidence given in the Coroner’s Court yesterday afternoon. The Coroner (Mr A. T. Bell) found that Leslie William Reed, aged 73, died on March 15, the cause of death being asphyxia due to drowning. Eric Charles Reed, an electrician, said on March 15 he went fishing with his father about half a mile upstream from the Main North road traffic bridge at the junction of the south stream and the main stream. They arrived about 7 p.m. His father was dressed in warm clothing and was wearing thigh length gum boots which were tied around his waist with rope. Witness cast into a hole and foul hooked a trout which he was unable to land because of the light line and the fast flowing stream. He asked his father for assistance in landing the fish and he worked his way closer to his father. Witness warned his father to be careful of the hole but his father replied that he could see the bottom.

As his father got closer to the hole witness became concerned and told his father to go no further and said he would break the line as the fish was not worth it. At the same time he was trying to get closer to his father to stop him going closer to the hole to net the fish. When witness was only a few feet away his father suddenly disappeared into the hole. He made a dive to catch him and was able to grab him by the back of the jersey and they both landed in the hole. As they submerged he released his hold so that he could get his waders off. He released the buckle of his belt and was able to shed his waders.

The next thing he knew his head was above the surface. His father did not struggle. Witness was in deep water and although he could not swim he managed to keep afloat and was assisted to the bank by a man. When his father disappeared into the hole witness got the impression that the shingle on the edge crumbled under his weight. His father made a faint cry for help as he submerged, said Reed. Sergeant Bruce Dunbar Read said at 9 p.m. he was in charge of a search to locate the body. When he arrived at the scene there were two units of the Christchurch Fire Brigade and eight members of the police present. The vehicles were parked about 30 yards from the edge of the river and portable lights were set up at the water’s edge. Shortly before 10 p.m. Mr E. A. Burt, a former constable, and Mr P. Bowman, skin divers, arrived and after making an underwater search for about 20 minutes they located the body in about 30ft of water, some two chains from the bank.

Sergeant Read said the area had been made dangerous by the operations of a Ministry of Works dragline. The hole extended the full width of the river and was about 30 yards wide and 30ft deep. The two skin divers greatly assisted in the early recovery of the body. POISONED BY PILLS Joanne Catherine Morton, aged 15 months, was found to have died on February 14, the cause of death being cardiac and respiratory failure due to eating tablets. Joseph Paul Morton, the girl's father, said he heard the girl crying at 9 a.m. on Februrary 13 and he went to her room. She slept in a cot and her sister used to pass her books.

The baby started to vomit and he found a bottle of pills in the cot and some halfchewed pills were scattered around the cot. His mother had taken them for her asthma. A box, in which his mother used to keep her medicines, had been pulled out from under the bed and the lid was open. He assumed that Joanne’s sister had given her the pills but did not take any herself. After his mother had left the house he looked around to see if she had left anything behind, said Morton.

KILLED BY AVALANCHE Denis William Forrest, aged 25. and Michael John Keating, aged 23, were found to have died on Mt. Outram, near the Erewhon Station, on December 30, 1964, the cause of death being shock and hemorrhage due to severe internal injuries and fractures suffered when a snow avalanche, started by two other climbers, swept them over a 200 ft bluff while they were climbing. Dr. L. L. Treadgold, a pathologist, gave evidence as to the cause of death. The evidence of other witnesses was taken at Auckland.

MOTOR-CYCLIST KILLED Leslie Ernest James Poultney, aged 29, was found to have died at the Christchurch Hospital on February 8, the cause of death being a massive hemorrhage of the right femoral artery, suffered when ♦he motor-cycle he was riding collided with a truck driven by Gary Francis LarSe Larsen, a driver, said at 4.10 pm on February 8 he was driving his employer’s truck along Lichfield street about 25 miles an hour. Near the City Council testing station he ga w a motor-cycle coming from the opposite direction.

He glanced into the testing station to see if any vehicles were coming out and suddenly the motor-cycle turned right across his path. He braked and the truck was stopped when the motor-cycle ran into the front of it. The motorcyclist got up and called out that he wanted an ambulance as he was bleeding. He did not see the motor-cyclist give a hand signal. CRUSHED BY PRESS Samuel Henry Perriton, aged 51, was found to have died in Princess Margaret Hospital on January 13 from bilateral broncho pneumonia and bronchitis associated with recent lacerations and hemorrhages of the brain suffered

when he was struck by a hydraulic accumulator.

Clive George Webber, a stock cutter, employed by Skellerup Clothing and Rubber, Ltd., said on November 28 Perriton went into the accumulator room to do maintenance. Later witness saw water leaking from the room. He found that a pipe had burst and that Perriton was under the accumulator. It appeared that the accumulator had fallen on him because of the blown joint. FELL OFF VAN

James Graham, aged 63, was found to have died on February 15 at the Christchurch Hospital, the cause of death being cardiac and respiratory failure due to hemorrhage of the brain and pneumonia, resulting from injuries suffered when he fell from the roof of a railway van at the Addington workshop on February 12.

Malcolm Dexter Jeffrey, a carpenter, said that Graham was working on the roof of a van about 11.30 a.m. when he fell between the van and the scaffolding and was knocked unconscious. FATALLY INJURED

John Charles Hopkins, aged 22, was found to have died on December 20, 1964, the cause of death being shock and hemorrhage after a rupture of the spleen suffered in a motor-cycle accident. Richard Herbert Schluter, a freezing worker, said he had steered a motor-cycle to the right because of the camber of the road when approaching Gardeners bridge on Beach road. Motunau. The machine skidded along the bitumen and then went over the bank. When the motorcycle stopped he was under the petrol tank and Hopkins was lying under a wire fence.

DIED DURING OPERATION Harold John Muchmore, aged 66, was found to have died at Princess Margaret Hospital on March 4 while undergoing an operation, the cause of death being shock and hemorrhage. Dr. David Cranleigh Thomson Bush said Muchmore was a poor operational risk. SUICIDE VERDICTS

Max Edward Meyer, aged 65, was found to have committed suicide at premises in Manchester street, on January 18, the cause of death being poisoning. Lajos Nagy, aged 27, was found to have committed suicide at a flat in Grafton street on February 2, the cause of death being a gunshot wound.