DEATH OF CYCLIST

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 218, 10 June 1933, Page 8

DEATH OF CYCLIST

Collision With Motor-car WITNESSES AT INQUEST An inquest concerning the death o£ Francis Roy Kirkland, a carpenter, aged 21, In the Wellington Hospital on May 16 as a result of an accident in Taranaki Street on May 12, was conducted by Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Mr. Kirkland received fatal injuries when a bicycle he was riding collided with a motor-car. Senior-Sergeant Dempsey conducted the inquest, Mr. W. E. Leicester appeared for the parents of deceased, and Mr. 11. F. O’Leary for Mrs. Daphne Ilacon, the driver of the motor-car concerned in the accident. Mr. Leicester said that 'civil proceedings would follow, and the coroner said that in that case the evidence would be confined simply to the cause of the fatality. Thomas Ernest Green, an employee of the Wellington City Council, and step-father of the deeeased, said when he last saw Mr. Kirkland he was in good health. He worked for Mr Sheppard in Devon Street. Cars Parked in Street. William John Dallas, an apprentice employed by the Fletcher Construction Company, said there' were two cars parked in Taranaki Street opposite Abel Smith Street, and a motor-car coming along Taranaki Street bad to puli out to avoid these. A cyclist came out of Abel Smith Street at a good pace, and took too wide a sweep in turning ' the corner. The cyclist skidded and fell, and one of the front i

wheels of the motor-car ran over his head. . „ Alexander Duncan, inquiry officer for the Unemployment Bureau, estimated the spec ' of the motor-car at 15 miles an hour. . Charles Leslie Theobald, agent, said that two youths were riding bicycles abreast. One of the machines wobbled, and the rider fell iu front of the motorcar. Thomas Campbell Sutherland, acting house surgeon at Wellington Hospital, said the deceased was admitted on the night of May 12, and an operation was performed at 6 p.m. Deceased rallied, but later sank, and died on Maj- 16. In his opinion death had been caused by a severe blow on the right side of the head, with a depresesd fracture of the skull, and contusion of the underlying brain. Woman Driver's Evidence. Daphne Hacon, driver of the motorcar, who resides with her husband at 111 The Parade, Island Bay, said she had her three children with her, and was travelling at about 15 miles an hour when the collision took place. Passing Abel Smith Street she had to pull out to pass two cars parked in Taranaki Street. As she did so, two cyclists came out of Abel Smith Street at a fast pace, and did not appear to look where they were going. The car struck one of the cyclists, who was thrown to the ground. She pulled up the car. When she first saw the cyclists, they were on the wrong side of the road, and endeavoured to get back to the right side. One succeeded in doing so, but the other skidded, and may have struck the off mudguard of the ear, but she was not sure that he did.

The coroner returned a verdict that deceased had met bis death through his bicycle coming into contact with a motor-car driven by Mrs. Hacon. The evidence which had been submitted did not indicate that, criminal proceedings would follow.