MOTOR FATALITY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 299, 14 September 1937, Page 8

MOTOR FATALITY

Collision With Pole Near

Paekakariki

CORONER’S VERDICT A verdict, ibal John Dwyer, dis patclier at Liiinhlon Iramwtiy depot, aged G 3, died near I’aekakarlki, on the Palmerston .North-Wellington main highway, on April 30, trom injuries received in a collision between a telephone pole and a car driven by .Norris Raymond Adcock, in which Dwyer was a passenger, was given by the coroner, Mr. George 11. Harper, Levin, al the adjourned inqiieHl recently. Air. W. E. Leicester appeared for Lie driver, and I'Jrinisl John Kelly, and for Other passenger.-! in the car, and All. Bryan appeared lor relatives of deceased. Ernest John Iteilly, Perth, Western Australia, said Dwyer, .N. It. Adcock, A. Adcock and himself started from Wellington on April 30 lor Woodville lor the races, and left the course at about 4.30 p.m. for Wellington. pwyer was witness’s uncle, and the trip was arranged to enable him to see a New Zealand race meeting. Alexander Adcock, a tramway motorman, said lie drove from Palmerston North to Levin, where his won bought, ■fish and chips, which the party ate. There was no alcoholic drink consumed on the journey to or at Levin. His son did not complain of headache at auy time 011 the journey, though shortly betorc he suffered from an injury to his head. The only things he remembered of the accident were seeing a light, hearing the crash, and asking his son to .pull him from' a ditch. He remembered a motorvehicle coining toward them wits particularly bright lights. Charles William Foster, civil engineer aud surveyor, Levin, said he found two men beside a motor-car lying on its side between Paraparaumu and Paekakanki at about midnight. Ou searching he discovered two other men in a ditch. Lhe driver told him he was blinded by the bright lights of a ear travelling in the other direction, and that the next thing he knew he was in the ditch. . Umberto Primo Calcinai, vehicle inspector, said that on Alay IS he examined the damaged ear. The hand brake was satisfactory, but the foot brake was defective. The defections were not brought about by the accident. Constable It. Smith, PaekakaTiki, said when he visited the scene of the accident Dwyer was lying on the grass at the side of the road, and at the rear of the car. The car had been travelling down a slight grade on a straight portion of the road. It had veered to the left the left-hand side wheels leaving the” bitumen CO feet from where the car collided with a telephone pole. F roin the time the wheels left the bitumen until th car finished up in the ditch it travelled 231 feet. The car was extensively damaged. The telephone pole, which consisted of two railway lines bolted together, was set back about 3ft.. .from the bitumen, and was painted white on the lower portion. At the time of the accident the weather was fine and visibility fair. ~ ■Dr. D. O. Paterson, Paraparaumu, said deceased suffered from signs of a fracture of the base of the skull, a fractured vertebra, and upper ribs extensively crushed. Death would be instantaneous. Norris Raymond Adcock, railway employee, who drove the car from Levin onward, said he was travelling at about 30 miles an hour, and when a motorvehicle drew close it. neither dimmed -nor dipped its lights. It was raining, and it was impossible to see precisely bow near the centre of the road the approaching vehicle was. To be prudent he slackened speed and drew over to what he thought was the extreme edge of the bitumen. Apparently he went over too far, because somewhere toward the rear of the car the pole struck it. He brought the car to a stop as best he could, and then assisted to extricate his . father from under the vehicle. He was unaffected by any headaches during the day.