A CARRIER’S DEATH

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 121, 20 February 1928, Page 16

A CARRIER’S DEATH

« SEQUEL TO COLLISION WITH TRAMCAR WHAT INQUEST REVEALED An inquest was opened on Saturday into the circumstances surrounding the death of Thomas George Needham, a carrier, married, of Tinakori Road, who was injured in an accident in Tinakori Road on February 2 between a horse and cart and a traincar. Needham was taken to the hospital and there X-rayed. According to deceased’s statement to Dr. Alexander Robertson, who attended Lim for pneumonia after discharge from Hospital no bones were found to have been broken. After death a post-mor-tem examination was held at the request of decease'd’s relatives, when it was found deceased had eight ribs fractured. The Coroner (Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M.) presided, Senior-Sergeant Scott conducted the inquest on behalf of the police, Mr. P. H. Putnam appeared for the relatives of deceased, while Mr. J. O’Shea, city solicitor, appeared for the City Corporation. Dr. P. P. Lynch, pathologist at the Public Hospital, said that he held a. post-mortem examination of deceased and found that eight ribs were fractured. Pneumonia, which had affected the left lung, arose as the result of the chest injuries. Death in his opinion was due to injuries to the chest and liver, complicated by pneumonia. Mr. Putnam: An X-ray examination was made of deceased while at the hospital, was it not? Should not that have revealed the fractures to his ribs ?— "X-ray examinations frequently fail to reveal fractures of the ribs because they are frequently produced without displacement of the bone ends.’ Dr. Alexander Robertson said that when he attended deceased at his home he found him suffering from pneumonia. Needham told him about having an accident and about having been X-rayed at the hospital, where it. was found no bones were broken. Witness pressed Needham’s chest with both hands, which was the usual w’ay of looking for injuries to the chest, but deceased did not complain of any pain. Witness did not think that Needham , was going to die when he saw him the day before the end, although his breathing was more difficult than it had been. In reply to a question by Dr. D. M. Wilson, Superintendent of the Public Hospital, witness said that if a patient who was mentally capable of judging for himself, and who was not suffering from any infectious disease, wished to leave the hospital, witness would have no legal right to keep him there. Frederick Richard Stevenson, a motorman, gave evidence as to how the accident occurred, which resulted in Needham being taken to the hospital. Witness said that while driving a tram down Tinakori Road on February 2 he saw a stationary cart by the side of the road. When he was about eight yards from the cart the horse suddenly swung

out on the line. Witness applied the brakes, but struck the horse and cart and carried them along for about twc yards. Just before the accident Needham rushed across the footpath and was struck by the shaft and knocked down as the tram, which was going at about 17 miles, an hour, hit the cart.' Witness denied that he had covered 60 feet from the time he applied the brakes. Horace Ernest Hewitt, a conductor on the tram, said it stopped too suddenlv to have covered 60 feet from the time the brakes were applied. Jack Moirison Daly, a bricklayer, who saw the accident, said that he’'thought the tram could have pulled up in time without hitting the horse and cart. The inquest w’as adjourned until February 27 so that the doctor who attended Needham at the Hospital could be in attendance.