UNIDENTIFIED CAR

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 302, 17 September 1936, Page 2

UNIDENTIFIED CAR

... ♦ . Involved in Street Fatality FRUITLESS INQUIRIES — ...... “If the third driver heard the crash or scream bd'is nothing more than a hit-and-run driver—a class we are doing our utmost to suppress,” commented the coroner, Mr. E. Gilbertson, at the close of an inquest yesterday into the death of Elizabeth Anne Farther, a married woman, aged 67 years, Who was the victim of an accident in Kent Terrace on the night of August 20. A formal verdict wns returned that deatu occurred on August 23 as a result of Injuries received when she was knocked down by a motor-car driven by Weldon Edgar Francis Jeffries. Mr. Evan Parry appeared for the driver of the car add Mr. E. Hogg for the relatives. The police were represented ty Senior-Sergeant D. J. O’Neill. A son of the deceased, Philip Douglas Fargher, chemist’s assistant, Wellington, said that up to the time of her death his mother had the full use of all her faculties.

Phyllis Mary Fargher, aged 12. said that at about 7.25 p.m. on August 20, she was walking with her grandmother from Pirie Street to Kent Terrace, for the purpose of catching a city-bound tram. When they were about halfway from the kerb to the tramlines in Kent Terrace, a motor-car suddenly came round the corner of Pirie Street, and. turned toward them. They had just gained the first set of tramlines when the eat struck them down.' Witness was knocked -forward on to her left side, with the front of the car coming to a stop on top of her. She was pulled out from under the car by a tramwayman. When she got up her grandmother was lying on the road with her feet under the side of the car between the front and . rear wheels. From the time that she first saw the car comwx from Pirie Street until she and her grandmother were struck would only have been one or two seconds. Evidence given by Dr. Margaret A. Burke, house surgeon, Wellington Hospital, was that death was due to a fracture at the base of the skull, with injury to the vital centres of the brain. The Driver’s Evidence. The driver of the car which struck deceased and her granddaughter, Weldon Edgar Francis Jeffries* farmhand, stated that he was driving to the Wellington Hospital, along Kent Terrace, close to the left-hand side of the road, at approximately 17 miles an hour. As he was about to cross the intersection of Pirie Street, a car Came out of that street and stopped to let him pass. A.nother car, however, swung out from behind the first and he had to apply the footbrake hard and swerve to the right to avoid a collision. The other driver made a lefthand turn but did not stop. Just as he had straightened up he noticed a woman and little girl directly in front of his car. He applied the foot and hand-brakes, but was unable to stop before hitting them. When he had stopped the car deceased was lying just under the door on the driver’s side of the car, and the girl was lying under the car between the front wheels. Evidence was also given by Sergeant W. J. Brown, James Frederick Iremonger, motorman, Ashley Lucas Jeffries, labourer, a passenger in his brother’s car, and Ernest James Gates, caretaker, who witnessed the accident. Comment was made by the coroner that the evidence was inconclusive as to how the accident had occurred because of the question: Where was,the third cor thgt had forced Jeffries further out? ' ” ( Senior-Sergeant O’Neill:; We have made every possible inquiry, .but have been unable to locate it. The coroner: The evidence is clear that there was a third car. Senior-Sergeant O'Neill: There is no doubt about it, but there appears to be a possibility that the driver of the car did not hear the crash or the scream. He did not stop, and his number was not taken. Reference was then made to the third driver being in the same category as a hit-and-run motorist if he was aware of the accident. . , Senior-Sergeant O Neill pointed out that the thinl motorist had not actually struck deceased. The coroner: No, but to a large extant he was the cause of the accident; he had no business to be where he was An observation that Lent Terrace seemed to be rather a bad place for accidents was then made by Mr. Gilbertson. This was the third or fourth inquest he had had on fatalities in that street, he reply to a question, Senior-Sergeant O’Neill said the lighting in that area was not of the best.