THE WILTONS-ROAD FATALITY

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 55, 7 March 1919, Page 7

THE WILTONS-ROAD FATALITY

A DISASTEOUS ERROR OF

.JUDGMENT.

An inquiry was held by Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., this morning regarding the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Gentles, aged 63 years, of 237, Willis-street, who' died at the Wellington Hospital on Monday evening, following a motor accident on Wilton' s-road on Saturday afternoon. ■

Sergeant Butler conducted the inquiry on behalf of the poliqe. Eric H. Luke, house surgeon at'• the Hospital, stated that the deceased \vas unconscious when admitted to. the Hospital. She was suffering from a fracture, of the ba3e of the skull, and though the usual treatment was applied, she gradually sank and'died about 7.55 p.m. on Monday.

Jeremiah O'Meara said that he was the owiler and driver of the car, in which deceased- was riding when the accident occurred. On Saturday afternoon Mrs. and Miss Gentles and Mrs. Cartwiught also accompanied witness on a pleasure ride. "Witness drove to the Karori tram terminus, and when returning turned down Wiltons-road to pass through Wadestown. The. road was very narrow, but he had been over it: many times. However, a. wrong turning was taken, and witness, thinking that he could get on to the lower road without any trouble, did not back the car, but tried to drive the car. round to reach the other road. The front wheels of the ear ran over a slight incline, hardly more than la foot, and witness, in endeavouring to reach the foot brake, the hand brake being already on, touched the accelerator, with the result that the car bounded forward, through a fence, and down a steep incline, apparently turning over twice. Deceased was thrown clear of the car, and rolled down a second embankment, about half a chain in all from the car, which was pulled up by the stripping of the spokes in one wheel. Deceased was unconscious when picked up, and as a doctor could not be obtained the ambulance was called up. The car could have been backed down from the upper road, but witness considered that he had plenty of room to turn from the upper to the lower road in the angle of the' V made by their junction. The brakes of the car were in thorough order, and the fatality was wholly due to the accidental touching of the accelerator. The Coroner, after reviewing the evictenc, said that no doubt it would have been better had the car been backed down to the lower road. The driver had made an error of judgment, though he acted with the best ;ntentions. A verdict was returned that deceased died at the Wellington Hospital from injuries received through being thrown out of a car accidentally driven over a bank on •Wilton'sroad.