Coroner’s Court Driver Crushed To Death In Cab Of Truck

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30982, 11 February 1966, Page 12

Coroner’s Court Driver Crushed To Death In Cab Of Truck

When a large articulated truck stopped in Clarence street near Riccarton road on the afternoon of November 5 three concrete piers weighing 27 tons moved forward and slowly crushed the cab, killing the driver. This evidence was given in the Coroner’s C"-irt on Wednesday, the Coroner (Mr A. T. Bell) finding the driver, Lance Frederick Butler, aged 33, died from injuries suffered when he stopped the truck he was driving and the load moved forward. Trevor Gerald Storer, a contractor, said that at 3.55 p.m. on November 5 he overtook the truck, which was being driven at a speed of under 20 miles an hour, and stopped in a line of traffic for the lights at the Clarence streetRiccarton road intersection. “I had been stopped for about 10 to 15 minutes when I heard compressed air being released. I turned and looked out of the rear window. The articulated truck was stationary Bft to 10ft behind me. I saw the cab of the truck fold over the driver down on to the bonnet. The movement was gradual, not sudden,” Storer said.

George Edward Palmer, a senior vehicle inspector employed by the Transport Department, said the truck was

a five-axled articulated combination consisting of a tractor and trailer units. Two spring-loaded locating pins for the rear portion were in the withdrawn position. The trombone or telescopic units of the semi-trailer were 87 inches apart, Palmer said. The vacuum metering device of the hand-operated brake control for the rear units of the vehicle was in the second notch of the six position. He concluded that, because the two 2in diameter springloaded locating pins were not in position, there was nothing positive to maintain the two halves of the semi-trailer in position other than the load of beams and the efficiency of the trailer brakes. In his opinion the two direct causes of the accident were the absence of the locking pins in the trombone section and the reduced efficiency of the trailer rear brakes because the setting of the vacuum metering device was too low for the load. Questioned, the witness said that if the pins had been replaced in the trailer section the accident would not have occurred. The articulated unit was in good condition. The brake gauge for the rear ■ unit should have been in I about position six for the load j which was carried, but he did | not discount the possibility that the lever had been shifted while the driver was being extricated. KILLED BY HORSE The Coroner found that Neil Raymond Palmer, aged 13, died in the Christchurch Hospital on October 12 from cardio-respiratory failure caused by brain injuries. Noel Edgar Palmer, a farmer, of Clarkville, said his son was injured in a fall from a horse on his. property on October 9. The horse was used to children and his son was an excellent rider, either with a saddle or bareback. On the occasion of the accident he was using a proper child’s saddle. Constable L. Nesbitt read a statement made by Frank Bray, a boilermaker, who said that on October 9 he was fishing in the Ohoka river just off Tram road, and at 2.45 p.m. saw a boy with a horse upstream, about 30ft from the river. About 3.20 he heard the boy returning, and his attention was attracted by the sound of a breaking branch. “I turned and saw the boy falling from the right side of the horse. He was crouched over the horse and the branch

of the tree was caught in his jersey. As the boy fell his right foot was caught in the stirrup. When he slid towards the ground the branch was still caught in his jersey and his left leg was across the saddle. “The horse sidled away, dragging the boy backwards out of the saddle. His head was hanging down near the horse’s hooves. The horse lashed out with both back feet, kicking the boy in the middle of the back and on the back of the head. “When the horse galloped off the boy’s right foot was still caught in the stirrup and he was hanging limp. The horse galloped for some distance before the boy fell free.” CRUSHED BY TRACTOR Eric Jarnos Hislop, aged 50, a farmer, was found to have died on November 8 on his farm at Reserve road, Amberley, the cause of death being asphxia from the compression of chest when he was crushed under a crawler tractor. Florence Joyce Hislop said she found her husband jammed between the crawler tractor and the discs, with the tractor motor still running. He was dead. She attempted to drive the tractor forward to free the body, but the machine reversed and one of the tracks crushed her husband’s head. Constable H. White, of Amberley, said he was unable to reconstruct how the accident occurred. Hislop’s rubbersoled boots had mud on them, and he might have slipped. DROWNED IN RIVER Allyson Julia Vanderhaven, aged four, was found to have drowned on November 4 in the Avon river. Evidence was given that the girl went to meet her brother when he was going home from school. She did not arrive home with him. Constable G. Dynes read the statement of a five-year-old boy who said he saw the girl on the river bank and told her to come away from the water. He took her across the road to the footpath on the other side. The girl returned to the river, and the last he saw of her was on a footbridge looking down through a gap in the side of the bridge. DROWNED IN COPPER Reginald Wayne Dunne, aged four, was found to have drowned at his parents’ home at 89 Barbour street when he fell into a copper of cold water. CRUSHED BY CAR George Wallace Parmenter, aged 68, was found to have died at his hoffte at 57 Port Hills road on December 2 from injuries suffered when a jack slipped while he was working under a car and he was pinned to the ground. FELL OFF LADDER

George Martin Awa, aged 31, of 45 Riccarton road, was found to have died at the Christchurch Hospital on November 4 of cardio-respiratory failure after suffering a fractured skull when a ladder on which he was working at the premises of Lane, Walker, Rudkin, Ltd., on November 3 •slipped from under him.