HUTT ROAD SMASH

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 98, 20 January 1938, Page 6

HUTT ROAD SMASH

Girl’s Fatal Injury On Way Home From Dance

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST

“There is no evidence that the lad was intoxicated —he is exonerated entirely from that,” said the coroner, Mr. E. Gilbertson, at the conclusion of an inquest yesterday into the? death or Alison May Burch, Wellington, aged 18 who received fatal injuries when a car driven by Charles Naughton Derek Taylor crashed into a telegraph pole on the Hutt Road on December 19. The accident occurred when Taylor and Miss Burch were returning from a dance, the car leaving the road at a bend. Miss Burch had both legs broken and received severe head injuries, and she died in the Wellington Hospital the following day. Senior-Sergeant. D. J. O’Neill conducted the inquiry for the police and Mr. E. Hogg appeared for the driver of the car. Arthur Edward Burch, father of the girl, said that when Derek Taylor left with his daughter about 7.30 p.m. to go to a dance in Wellington he did not appear to have consumed any liquor. At the hospital he spoke to Taylor and there was no sign of liquor on him then.

Dr. H. C. TTemewan, house surgeon at the Wellington Public Hospital, who examined Miss Burch at 2.45 a.m., said death was caused by Intracranial damage associated with 'profound shock. Adam Stein, Upper Hutt, a bus driver employed by the New Zealand Road Services, said that on his way to Upper Hutt about 12.30 a.m. a dark sedan car passed him. On reaching the corner of Exchange Street and Main Road, Upper Hutt, he saw the car in the left-hand ditch. A man was staggering in the middle of the Main Road with blood running from his face and hands. The car had run off the road and collided with a telegraph pole and possibly rolled over several times before coming to rest on its wheels. When the car passed him . there was nothing exceptional about its speed. Mrs. Florence Ida McCurley, Miro Street, Trentham, a passenger in the bus, said she asked Taylor if he were hurt, but he made no reply. He took hold of the bumper of the bus and slid on to his knees. She told him to lie down, and he replied: “What has happened?” Taking her apron, she bandaged bis wrist, which was badly cut. To the coroner witness said there was no smell of drink on Taylor; she took particular notice of that. Rex Hill, tramway conductor, wh<X arrived on the scene of the accident while Mrs. McCurley was attending to Taylor, said he heard someone moaning over by the car and found a woman lying under the engine. She was conscious, but after he had extricated her she became unconscious. He could see that both legs were badly injured. The car was badly smashed and looked to be beyond repair. Statement to Constable.

Constable F. J. Williams, Upper Hutt, said he went immediately to the scene of the accident. Asked what had happened, Taylor replied: “I had taken Miss Burch to a dance at the Brown Owl and when we were returning home we had just passed a bus when the car ran off the road, but I cannot remember what happened after.” Taylor’s breath smelt of liquor, but he did not appear to be in any way under the influence of liquor. He said he had had two glasses of sherry. The car had apparently been travelling at a very high speed when it left the road, witness continued. North of that spot there, was a mark of the lefthand wheels for several yards where the car had been running on the macadam part of the road. The marks came on to the edge of the bitumen, then appeared to broadside off the road, the car travelling on the rough grass verge for 103 feet before striking a telegraph pole, turning over and coming to rest on its wheels facing across the road 42 feet from the telegraph pole. The car left the road at a bend and there was no doubt in his mind that the ear was travelling too fast to take the bend. The telegraph pole, of hardwood, was split right down, and the next pole, of concrete, was shattered at the top and several wires were broken by the impact. In reply to Senior-Sergeant O’Neill, Witness said he saw some evidence of speed and it was evident that the car had been travelling at terriflic speed when it left the road. Before hitting the telegraph pole, it travelled over hummocks of grass. To Mr. Hogg, witness said there was ng evidence that the car was out of control before it reached the corner. It bad skidded round after leaving the road and broadsided on to the post, the front of the car not being damaged at all. He did not base his estimate of speed on the damage to the posts alone, but on the marks on the road. Driver’s Evidence. The driver of the car, Charles Naughton Derek Taylor, aged 19, a medical student at the University of Otago, said he drove Miss Burch from her home at Rona Bay into Wellington, met two friends, and followed them out to the Brown Owl Cabaret. He had one wineglass of sherry about 9.30 p.m. aud another at 10.30 p.m.. Leaving about 12.30 a.m. to be home, at a reasonable time, he drove off the main road toward Upper Hutt travelling at approximately 35 to 40 miles an hour. He. remembered seeing a not very pronounced bend ahead in ample time to negotiate it, but could not recall whether he slackened speed, though he thought he instinctively would. He was unable to recollect the car leaving the bitumen, and the remainder of the actual happening was a blank to him. He could not recall having an opportunity to apply the brakes. It was almost as though he had fainted at the wheel, though he whs not subject to fainting turn's. He. received a severe knock on the head, badlj’ contused right eye, and a severe cut on the left wrist. The first thing he recollected was getting up from the. ground and staggering to where the car was lying. He could not find Miss Burch and fainted before he could search thoroughly. Some time later, he had a recollection of people attending to him. During the homeward jwirney, he had both hands on the steering wheel, his gaze was concentrated on the road and his attention was not being distracted in any manner. He was definitely not hurrying to get Miss Burch home. The senior-sergeant: You estimated

your speed approaching the corner at between 35 and 40 miles an hour. Wouldn’t that be a little excessive for that bend?

Witness: Though I have no recollection of it, I must have slackened speed. You weren’t hurrying home? —“No.” You didn’t tell Mr. Burch you were going to the Brown Owl. That would not cause you to be hurrying home?— “No.”

The coroner: Why did you go there? —“We were going to a tennis club dance and we met two friends who prevailed on us to go to the Brown Owl.”

Did you see any signs of intoxication there?—“A number of people had been to a sherry party, but I didn’t see much drinking.” You took your own sherry?—“Yes.”

The coroner returned a verdict that Miss Burch’s death in the Wellington Hospital on December 20 was caused through injuries received while a passenger in a ear driven by Derek Taylor when it struck a telegraph post on the Hutt Road the previous night.