KILLED AT WORK

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 200, 21 May 1931, Page 11

KILLED AT WORK

Struck by Passing Vehicle

DRAINLAYER’S DEATH

An inquest held yesterday concerning the death of George Andrew Brown, aged 22, who was fatally injured by a motor vehicle while he was drain-laying in Lyall Bay Parade on April 21, failed, to establish the identity of the vehicle responsible. ‘ Mr. I. Salek, J.P., coroner, presided at the inquest. Mr. J. O’Shea, city solicitor, appeared for the City Council, Mr. C. J. O’Regan for the relatives of deceased, Mr. S. A. Wiren for 11. W. Cormack, district engineer for the Wellington City Council, who was driving a motor-car on the parade on the day of the accident, and Mr. W. E. Leicester for the insurers of Cormack's car.

> Medical evidence was given to the effect that Brown died in the Wellington Hospital two days after the accident from a compound fracture of the skull and pneumonia. Martin Brophy, a Post and Telegraph linesman, who was seated at the rear of a motor-lorry which passed along Lyall Bay Parade toward Breaker Bay on the morning of April 21, stated that as the vehicle passed to the right of a hole in the ground he Saw the body of a man. The lorry was stopped, and witness found that the man was covered in blood. There was no flag to notify traffic of the excavation, and there were tire marks on the, soil at the edge of the hole. Witness said, in answer to Mr.' O’Shea, that the hole was easily visible to anyone driving along the road, and questioned further by the coroner, he added that it was possible that it might escape observation, although he considered a driver should have seen' it. Absence of Barricade.

L. P. Albert, master plumber, and employer of deceased, said that Brown had been sent to lay a drain in the road. The hole was 4ft. 9in. deep, and on one side the earth was heaped 14in. high. The wheel marks were about 4ft. 3in. apart. With Constable Anderson, witness examined a car in the City Council garage. The measurement between wheels was about 4ft. 4Jin., and the rear tires bore the same tread as that left bj* the motor vehicle which had passed over the hole. Witness did not consider under the circumstances that it was his duty to have barricaded the hole as it was obvious that work was being: carried out. “If a mltu would' drive over a heap of spoil like that he would drive over anything,” said witness in reply to a suggestion by Mr. O’Shea that a barricade would have prevented any acci-

dent. Remembered a Bump. H. W. Cormack said he drove along Lyall Bay Parade in a westerly direction about 9.30 a.m. on April 21. He recalled a bump, but did not remember the spol. It-was a long road with a rough surface and he travelled on the left-hand side at less than 25 miles an hour. He did not notice a hole in the road or a workman. After the injured man was found witness reported the matter to a traffic officer, and they inspected the road although the hole had then been filled in. An inspection of the car afforded no evidence that it had passed over a heap of spoil or had struck a man. L. S. Drake, chief traffic inspector, said the car driven by Cormack measured 4ft. 3in. between the wheels.

C. G. Swinburne, drainage engineer, said he had, with Constable Anderson and deceased’s employer, come to the conclusion that the car which had passed over tiie hole had been going in an easterly direction. The coroner returned a verdict that deceased died as the result of injuries received through being struck bj’ a vehicle while he was working on the road.