CORONER’S COURT Woman’s Death In Car Collision At Templeton

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30976, 4 February 1966, Page 8

CORONER’S COURT Woman’s Death In Car Collision At Templeton

A man whose wife was fatally injured in a collision on the Main South road at Templeton remembered nothing of the accident when he regained consciousness three weeks and a half later, according to evidence given in the Coroner’s Court.

The Coroner (Mr A. T. Bell) found that Lorraine Edna Chapman, aged 33, died on September 12 last from injuries suffered when the car driven by her husband, Reginald Edwin Chapman, collided with a car driven by James Stanley Peterson at Templeton. Peterson, a soldier, said that after attending a dance in Christchurch he was driving back to Burnham when he saw head-lights approaching when he was near Templeton. The next thing he knew the car was on the side of the road. He had lost consciousness.

He had not had any liquor for ' four hours before the accident, Peterson said. Chapman, a painter, said that he and his wife left a dance at the Hei Hei Country Club after midnight to return to their home in Gloucester street. He remembered nothing after starting the car. He woke in the Burwood Hospital three weeks and a half later. He suffered broken ribs and a fracture of the skull. He did not know how he got to Templeton, but thought he must have taken a wrong turning. He had had about two 7oz beers. William Brian Reelman, an engineer, said that he noticed nothing unusual in the way Peterson’s car was being driven when it passed him shortly before the accident CHILD RUN OVER

Witnesses had said that the child had run on to the road heedless of traffic and that the driver of the truck had done all he could to avoid the accident, said Constable G. R. Washington when the inquest into the death of Matthew Charles Witte, aged three, was concluded. The Coroner found that the child died on September 27 f -om injuries suffered when he ran out on to Blenheim road

and was struck by a truck driven by James Grey Watson. YOUTH KILLED Alan Malcolm Jones, aged 15, was found to have died on August 31 from injuries suffered while he was waiting on a cycle in the middle of Ferry road to make a right turn into Richardson terrace and was struck by a truck driven by Mervyn Richard Low. Low said the sun was reflected in his eyes off the windscreen of an approaching car just before he struck the cyclist. KNOCKED OFF CYCLE

The Coroner found that Frederick George Biddulph. aged 76, died on April 2 from injuries suffered when he was knocked off his bicycle at the corner of Lyttelton and Cobham streets by a car driven by lan Roger Griffiths.