Boy driver had been drinking

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33964, 3 October 1975, Page 10

Boy driver had been drinking

“It is very sad to have to deal with an inquest into a death which was quite unnecessary. In the event, there was only one but there could have been five or even more,” the Coroner (Mr R. G. Sinclair) said in the Ashburton Coroner’s Court yesterday.

He found that tha 14-year-old unlicenced driver of a car who died after an accident on June 29 had a blood-alcohol level of 175 milligrams. Robert Alexander Low, aged 15, a student, of Timaru, said his friend. Roy Matthew Wilson, of TimarU, was drinking beer while driving from Timaru to Ashburton. After Ashburton the car moved into loose shingle, veered on to the road and overturned, throwing out all four passengers but not the deceased. Constable W. J. Dixon, of Rakaia, said marks Indicated a skid of 132 ft and the deceased’s body was 30ft further on. The car belonged to an older brother, but the deceased was buying it

in readiness for his fifteenth birthday. Stewart Gould Crozier, a Ministry of Transport vehicle inspector, said the csr was badlv damaged when he inspected it, but there was evidence which suggested that there was a crack in the right side suspension which might have broken and contributed to the accident. After hearing from the pathologist (Dr L. A. Falgan), the Coroner found that the deceased died of asphyxia and ehock re suiting from cerebral bruising and a fracture of the apine, on June 20. near Overdale. Of the alcohol level the Coroner said, “I would have thought that this was a very high level for a 14-year-old. I would hope' that in some way, this unfortunate death would bring te the attention of other young people Inclined to drink and drive the fact that the practice ean very often be fatal.”