Death in fall from horse

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 5

Death in fall from horse

A young horsewoman died on December 9 when she fell under her horse, which was found by another rider lying trapped between two trees > and straddling a fence it had flattened. Evidence of this was heard in the Coroner’s Court yesterday at an inquest into the death of Michelle Meri Richardson, aged 20. The Coroner, Mr C. M. Marshall, found that Miss Richardson died in Curletts Road from traumatic asphyxia suffered when she fell under her horse. Constable J. A. W. Bennie said police inquiries showed that Miss Richardson had saddled her horse to ride it in paddocks in the area known as the old Sunnyside Hospital dairy farm, adjoining a new portion of Curletts Road.

Another rider in the area, Miss Stephanie McConnochie, saw Miss Richardson fitting side reins on her horse. These are reins which are tied to the bit at one end and to the saddle, or girth, at the other. Tying to the girth is the most acceptable practice.

Constable Bennie said that it appeared to Miss McConnochie that the binder twine reins were a little too tight, thus pulling the horse’s head down. This was common in dres-sage-style riding.

When Miss McConnochie returned after riding her own horse she found Miss Richardson’s horse lying on its side, wedged against a tree and with its forelegs over a fence. The horse was tangled in this fence, of seven-strand wire, which was flattened in the horse’s fall. Miss Richardson was “completely trapped” under the horse, with only part of a leg showing, the constable said. Miss McConnochie stopped a passing motorist and an ambulance was called. The motorist applieed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, without success.

Constable Bennie said inquiries showed that Miss Richardson had ridden horses for some eight years and was regarded as a competent horsewoman. She had owned a thoroughbred horse for the last two years. At the time of the accident she was not wearing a riding helmet.

Miss McConnochie gave evidence of coming upon the horse lying trapped between two trees and straddling a wire fence. She thought the horse had got away from Miss Richardson but then found a person’s leg protruding from under the horse.

She sought help, and she and the motorist freed the horse,-which had been “well and truly jammed in the fence and between the trees,” to attend to Miss Richardson. ARM LACERATED

A girl, aged six, died in hospital on December 27, almost a fortnight after suffering severe lacerations to an arm, which went through a glass door panel while she was playing chasing. The Coroner found at an inquest held into the death of Nicole Ebony Wright that her death resulted from multiple organ failure after shock from massive external haemorrhage. The postmortem finding also said that the girl had heterozygous sickle cell disease. A pathologist, Dr L. L. Treadgold, explained at the Coroner’s request that

the latter affliction was a congenital disease. It was a significant contributing factor in the girl’s death; somebody without the sickle cell afflication might not have died, he said. The Coroner, giving his finding on the girl’s death, said it was clearly a most unfortunate accident, in respect of which no fault could be attributed to anybody. Evidence was that the girl, while staying at her grandparents’ flat on December 14, played chasing with two other girls. She ran into the house and put out her left arm to push open a door. A pane of glass in the door broke and the girl suffered lacerations to the arm. She was admitted to Christchurch Hospital in a severely shocked state, and died 13 days later. MOTORIST’S DEATH A motorist who drove on the wrong side of the road after negotiating the Ferry Road-Tunnel Road roundabout collided headon with a 12-tonne truck, the Coroner was told. The motorist, Desmond Shane Wallace, aged 25, was found to have died on December 16 from multiple injuries suffered in a motor-vehicle accident in Dyers Road. A truck-driver, Ronald Charles Edwards, gave evidence of driving his employer’s laden 12-tonne truck at 1.30 p.m. on December 16. As he rounded a bend in Dyers Road, and about 40 yards back from the roundabout, he saw a car turn left off Ferry Road and travel towards his truck. The car was completely on its wrong side of the road when he first saw it. Mr Edwards estimated the car’s speed as 40 miles an hour. His truck’s speed was 25 miles an hour when he first saw the car but he braked the truck heavily and believed it had stopped when the impact occurred. The car driver did not appear to try to avoid the accident at all. He did not seem to slow down or steer away from the truck, Mr Edwards said. Another motorist gave evidence that as the car drove into the roundabout it appeared to take a corner too tightly and nearly clipped the edge of the roundabout. The car remained on its wrong side, and the driver did not appear to take any evasive action, before the collision with the truck. Constable M. R. Fitzsimons said inquiries indicated that excessive speed probably was a major cause of Mr Wallace’s driving on to the wrong side of Tunnel Road after turning off the roundabout. The point of impact clearly put his car on its incorrect side. DEATH IN HARBOUR , Donal Mac Lean, aged 52, whose body was found floating in the inner harbour at Lyttelton on December 24, was found to have died from asphyxia as a result of drowning. Constable Bennie said that police investigations showed that the body had no sign of injury. It apparently had not been in the water for long.

Mr Mac Lean apparently lived alone. He was an epileptic, and was on medication for this and other disorders. SUICIDE

Ronald James Brown, aged 67, was found to have committed suicide on December 10.