FATAL COLLISION

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 80, 28 December 1928, Page 11

FATAL COLLISION

INQUIRY INTO DEATH OF MOTOR-CYCLIST Dominion Special Service. Christchurch, December 27. A verdict that death was due to injuries accidentally received following a collision between his motor-cycle and a motor-car was returned to-day at the inquest on George Braddock, who was killed on the North Road yesterday. Ivy Geddis, of Rangiora, stated that at about 11.30 a.m. yesterday she was driving a motor-car along the North Road travelling south. After passing Chaney’s corner and getting on to the concrete a motor-cycle .seemed to shoot out from behind a motor-lorry which was approaching her. Witness was on her correct side and was doing about 10 miles an hour. The approaching cyclist seemed as if he were going to come head-on into her car, and she swerved to the left. The cyclist struck the right-hand side of the car and smashed the closed windows. Ivy Jacobs, of Palmerston North, who was a passenger in Miss Geddis's car, gave corroborative evidence. The driver of the motor-lorry, Joseph Henry Littler, deposed that he was driving 16 people in the direction of Chaney’s at the time of the accident. He saw the car driven by Miss Geddis approaching him at a slow pace. When her car came about opposite his windscreen he heard the sound of a motor-cycle. He glanced to the right and saw the motor-cycle crash into the car driven by Miss Geddis. Witnessed swerved, but deceased was flung off the car and struck his lorry. When witness got to Braddock he was dead. Constable Moore, of Belfast, said that when he arrived Braddock was dead and had a badly fractured skull. There were no papers on deceased to indicate whether he had relatives in the Dominion, and it is not known whether he was married or single.

Tn giving his verdict the coroner (Mr. H. A. Young) stated that the evidence showed clearly that there had been no want of care by either Miss Geddis or Mr. Littler