COLLISION WITH FENCE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 93, 13 January 1939, Page 13

COLLISION WITH FENCE

Death Of Motor-Cycle

Pillion Rider

A verdict that John Johnstone Mckay, painter and paperhanger, aged 59, died as a result of injuries he received when a motor-cycle ridden by Arthur William Evans collided with a fence on the Hutt Road, near St. Patrick’s College, Silverstream, on December 24, was returned by the coroner,. Mr. E. Gilbertson, at an inquest held in Wellington yesterday. Evans said in evidence that he had had four medium shandies in the afternoon, but when be left Quinn’s Post shortly before 6 p.m. for his home at Petone, both he and McKay were sober. It was raining lightly and he was travelling at about 35 miles an hour when he took the curve in the road. Witness advanced the theory that his pillion rider had upset the balance of the motor-cycle and had caused it to swerve into gravel. He had ridden with McKay on the pillion on many occasions, and sometimes McKay, who suffered from cramp, had asked him to stop while he rubbed his leg. Just before the accident McKay called out as though in pain, and the next moment tlie machine was off the bitumen and in the gravel. Evans said he tried to straighten up, but the machine hit the fence on the roadside and McKay was thrown some distance on to the bitumen. Evans suggested that a possible cause for the machine leaving the edge of the bitumen was the upsetting of its balance by McKay, who might have leaned over to rub his leg.

The coroner said there was evidence of the two men having had drink, but the amount was not excessive. It had been stated that anybody driving a motor vehicle should not take liquor, but the coroner added that he would not say liquor was the cause of this accident.