CORONER'S COURT Man drowned trying to save girl

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34087, 26 February 1976, Page 19

CORONER'S COURT Man drowned trying to save girl

A man drowned whenl he went to try to rescue a girl in the surf off Waimairi Beach on January 1, the Christchurch Coroner (Mr E. B. E. Taylor)} was told yesterday. The girl had told the Coroner's Court at Porirua that! i the man had not reallv known 'what to do and that she ended up holding him up rather than he her. He was lan Dewhurst, aged--131, of Cornwall, England,; | who had been more than four’ I years in New Zealand and 'was a student when he died, j Ruth Constance Anne O’Brien, aged 14, of Porirua. had said that she and another girl had been swimming in the afternoon about 100 yards north of the pipe line on Waimairi Beach. They had been I in the water about 10 min-1 jutes, and the water was only I up to her chest when there! I was suddenly nothing “under-! Ineath her." Her girlfriend tried to help.! I but could not get her in, as| ■ they were being battered by j I waves and being pulled out; I to sea. “She called to lan, who came over.’’ Ruth said. “But! it was obvious that he d'dl not really know what to do. I was holding lan up more! than he was holding me up.” As her girlfriend left to get; help Mr Dewhurst became; unconscious. After 15 min-’ rotes she had to let him go.! Terence George Woolley, agedi 35, a driver, said that he waswalking his dog on the beach j when a girl told him two peoplewere drowning. The tide was about a quarter of the way in. He went into the water and pulled the girl out. He then went back to search for the man but after 10 minutes he had still not found him. A jet boat and six members of a surf club then arrived and continued the search. Stephen Andrew Johnston, a teacher and the captain of the Waimairi Surf and Life Saving Club, said that the surf had been 3ft to 4ft high and was quite powerful. Between 1.30 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. there had been eight rescues between the patrol flags. From where the surf patrol was stationed they could not see the pipe because of the haze of the hot sunny day. For 45 minutes they had searched the area near the pipe but the water was murky and there were strong rips. Constable J. Fitlock said that Mr Dewhurst’s body was found the next day. It was near the water line on the beach. AKAROA DROWNING Paul Dennis Carey, aged 29. of Riselaw Terrace, Mairehau, drowned while swimming at Abarca on January* 5. Constable G. V. Williamson said that Mr Carey had been swimming at the main town beach about 6.45 p.m. When he was reported missing a search

| was made and at 8.15 p.m. his body was found just below the surface of the water, about halfway between the shore and a i raft. Mr Carey was an epileptic, and he might have suffered a seizure while swimming, said Constable i Williamson. It had been calm i and clear and there had been i numerous other swimmers- close al hand. Apparently nobody saw him go under the water, BUS HIT TRUCK A driver, who was standing ; on the front bumper of his J truck looking at the engine, suffered a fatal head injury after a bus hit the truck tray, cansi ing the truck to roil over. He was Leslie Paul Reynolds, i aged 29, of Woodend. The accident happened at Ataahua, about three miles east of Gebbies Vali ley Pass. ! Constable J D. 11. Boyd said that about 4.15 p.m. on June 11. Mr Reynolds had parked his truck on the left side of the Christchurch-Akaroa highway and was standing on the front bumper bar when an unloaded school bus hit the truck. The truck went 81ft down a slope and over a fence. Mr Reynolds was run over by the truck, j Constable Boyd said that there i had been considerable glare i from the sun, which was low in the sky. At least two other i vehicles had had to swerve suddenly to avoid the truck. Ronald Goslin. the bus driver, , said that he had suddenly seen 'the truck after he lost the sun I behind a hill. He had swerved . but the left front of the bus I caught the truck tray. Mr Goslin said that he ; slowed down to about 30 m.p.h. I because of the glare. CARS COLLIDED I Joanne Victoria Whittaker, ; aged 20, of Purbeck Place, died i in Christchurch Hospital on Dej cember 27, suffering from ’multiple injuries. Constable J. W. Watkins said I that Miss Whittaker had been in i a car travelling on Barbadoes j Street about 12.30 a.m. on De- | cember 27. The car had gone I through a red light and hit an- ! other car travelling on Worcesl ter Street. Constable Watkins said that | the driver of the car in which Miss Whittaker had been travelling. had pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court to charges of driving while disqualified driving in a manner causing death. He is Cedric Ranginohoora Tunoho, who was sentenced to six months periodic detention and disqualified from driving for two years. TYRE BLEW OUT A woman died after a tyre of the car in which she was travelling burst, and the car rolled over. She was Elizabeth Ann Chan, aged 22, of Victoria Street, who died from a fracture dislocation of the first cervical vertebra, together with an underlying spinal cord injury. Constable B. A. Christensen said that the accident happened about midnight on December 11 about half a kilometre north of the Rolleston station. The car skidded out of control and rolled across a water race. Three persons, including Mrs Chan, were thrown from the car. The road had been wet from a recent fall of light rain. CARBON MONOXIDE Christina Huntly McCulloch, aged 85, of Wilsons Road, died of carbon monoxide poisoning at her home about January 13. Constable K. W. Kortegast said that a relative notified the police that he had been unable to get into Mrs McCulloch’s house on January 14. When they entered

; the house Mrs McCulloch was dead in her bedroom and three gas rings on the stove were found on but unlit. The relative. Mr J. J. Robinson, told the constable that Mrs McCuiloch had often turned on the gas but forgotten to light • it. ‘ Two of the four eats she • owned were also found dead in j the house. DIED IN OPERATION George William Calvert, aged 73, of Wilsons Road, died in I Christchurch Hospital on December 23. suffering from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurism truptured arteryL Mr J. B. Morton, a surgeon, said that Mr Calvert collapsed after developing a severe abdom- '. inal pain. He died during a . laparotomy (investigative surgery). SUICIDE Janice Leonie O’Brien, aged 31. ■of Christchurch, was found to , have committed suicide by j drowning off the Canterbury ’ coast on January 10.