Coroner's Court INFANT DROWNED IN PROTECTED POOL

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33815, 11 April 1975, Page 11

Coroner's Court INFANT DROWNED IN PROTECTED POOL

A two-year-old girl who was ♦ound lying at the bottom of her parents' swimming pool must have pushed open one of two gates in a 6ft high fence enclosing the pool, the Christchurch district Coroner (Mr E. B. E. Taylor) was told on Wednesday. The girl. Merrin Lee Goodland, was found by the Coroner to have died from drowning. Constable I. H. Campbell said that on January 30 the girl was playing inside her home while her mother was in the laundry and her father in the garage, "’hen her mother discovered her missing both parents started a search and found her lying in the pool. One of the gates to the pool was unlatched. Both gates have locks sft from the ground. All possible safety precautions had been taken, said Constable Campbell. ELECTROCUTED A lineman employed by the Central Canterbury Power Board was found to have died from an electric shock suffered while he was working on lines in Dickson Crescent on January 8. He was Clifford Noel Vaux, aged 22. Robert Frederick Shackell. who was in charge of the power board gang, said that it was quite norma! to work on live lines, and Vaux had gone up the power pole to connect up new service lines. He watched Vaux working under the lines and turned away. Be heard a noise and looked up o see Vaux lying on top of the -nie> He didn't know how Vaux ■ould have got into such a position as he was normally very careful and had had two years experience as a lineman. FELL FROM CATHEDRAL Trevor Wayne Braithwaite, aged 19, died from a haemoraage from a ruptured artery suffered in a fall from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, the Coroner found. James Morris Harrington, a Roman Catholic priest, said that on February 1 he saw Braithwaite in the Cathedral and asked him to leave as the doors were about to be closed. He later saw him lying on the ground outside. Both Braithwaite's shoes were off. Father Harrington said that he did not know whether Braithwafte slipped off the Cathedral or the scaffolding surrounding it. Braithwaite might have been dazzled bj the floodlights which had just been switched on. A pathologist at The Princess Margaret Hospital said that a blood sample taken from Braithwaite showed a concentration ot 298 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood.

MOTOR-CYCLIST KILLED Richard Denis Cooney, aged 17, was found to have died from i gross injuries and fractures when: his motor-cycle and a truck col- i tided. on the Akaroa highway,' Halswell, on January 1. POISONING Raymond Leslie Adams, aged i . 60, died at Christchurch, having: ) committed suicide. The cause of! death was carbon-monoxide poi-: 1 soning. 5 OVERDOSE 2 Sally Nicolette Bowes, aged 28J * was found by the Coroner to! r ha\e died at Christchurch on!

; February 12 from an overdose , of phenothiazine. OTHER FINDINGS 1 ( Seamus Liam Buggy, aged two ' j days, was found to have died ’ i from a cardiac arrest during a ! blood transfusion for complications caused by phesus incompat1 i Ibility. *1 Mrs Annie North, aged 81, died fiat Sunnyside Hospital on Feb- - ruary 6 as the result of acute i heart failure. Edith Lawton Volckman, aged i 84. died at Christchurch on Janu- : ary 21 from an acute heart fail5 ure associated with a recent opi! eration.