‘ldiotic’ conduct led to man’s death

Press, 9 October 1987, Page 42

‘ldiotic’ conduct led to man’s death

PA Auckland A man who met a hideous death when struck by five vehicles on a motorway had displayed idiotic behaviour, said the Auckland Coroner, Mr Stephen Osborne. Richard Theodore Broomfield, aged 65, of Kaikohe, was “disembowelled, torn apart and spread over the motorway” in the August 6 accident, said the Coroner. He said he did not wish to be gratuitously offensive to Mr Broomfield’s relatives, two of whom were at the inquest. “But, having listened to the evidence, the deceased’s conduct was so idiotic that one might be forgiven for thinking that he deliberately set about killing himself.”

However, there was no evidence to show Mr

Broomfield was suicidal and it would be wrong to make such an assumption. Earlier, the Court was told that Mr Broomfield’s car had apparently run out of petrol several kilometres past the Otara interchange of the Southern Motorway at 7.10 p.m. on August 6. Mr Broomfield crossed southbound lanes and had stepped into the northbound lanes when he was struck by a car. The impact threw him over the car into an adjoining lane where the other vehicles, including three trucks, hit him. The drivers said they had not seen Mr Broomfield, who was wearing dark clothing. The Coroner said Mr Broomfield’s age, his dark clothing, the fact that blood tests showed him to

be slightly intoxicated, and the speed of the approaching vehicles were probably contributing factors to the tragedy. He ruled that Mr Broomfield died by misadventure from "hideous” multiple injuries when, for unknown reasons, he tried to cross the motorway. After the verdict, Mr Broomfield’s son-in-law, Mr Ron Campling, said his father-in-law’s long drive from Kaikohe to Auckland was out of character, for he usually caught a bus. Mr Campling said family members realised crossing the motorway was stupid, but the area where Mr Broomfield’s car .had stopped was poorly lit and that could have caused him to panic. Outside the Court, Mr Campling took issue with the Coroner’s comments. “He should have been more considerate in the type of words he used,” he said. “Idiotic is not a very nice word.”