A RECENT FATALITY

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 86, 8 October 1920, Page 8

A RECENT FATALITY

RESUMPTION OF INQUIRY

EVIDENCE OF EYE-WITNESSES,

The inquiry into the • circumstances which led to the death of Mr. Alfred Talbot Maile, fruiterer, of Kelburn, at the Public Hospital at 1.40 p.m. on 29th September, following injuries received when he was struck down, about two hours earlier, in Courtenay-place, by a motor-car driven by William Arthur Webb, was continued by Mr. J. S. Evans, S.M., this morning.

Chief-Detective Ward appeared for the police, Mr. A. W. Blair for Webb, Sir Kenneth Douglas for the relatives of the deceased, and Mr. H. E. Evans for-the Motor Union Insurance Company.

Henry Barnard, another fruiterer, stated that he and deceased were crossing Courtenay-place after leaving the Albion Hotel, when they saw the car, about 30ft distant, heading straight in their direction. They quickened their pace to (got out of the cline of the car, expecting the machine to pass behind them, but immediately afterwards Maile was struck down. Witness heard no horn blown, and considered that the car was going "rather fast." He himself was struck by the car, but was able to catch and hold on to the bonnet of the car, and was carried on across the road till the car was nulled up at the kerb in front of the Gas Company's offices, a distance of 95ft from the spot where he and deceased were struck.

To Mr. Blair : Deceased and witness neither hesitated nor turned back when they saw the car approaching, but kept straight on at a quickened pace. Witness saw nothing of a handcart on the roadway.

The opinion was expressed by John Ernest Kidner, labourer, that the car gathered undue spiced as it came dbwn Courtenay-place from Kent-terrace, and as it neared Tory-street swerved t<> the right, and narrowly avoided a, handcart being pushed across the road. The driver did not then slacken his speed, and, continuing on, struck the two men, who, ia his opinion, were crossing the road at light angles, and not obliquely (as Barnard stated); neither did he notice them hesitate, turn back, or quicken their pace. The roadway was clear, except for the handcart and the two men. He heard no warning given. To Mr. Blair: He could distinguish between the braking and the declutching of a car if the braking was sharply done.

Witness held that the car apparently maintained the same speed after the accident, and stopped "suddenly" near the Gas Company's door. The car, said Louis Brough, an eyevitnes9 of the accident, was travelling "at a fast pace" when it swerved immediately before the accident. He heard the horn blown, but believed that was just as the men were struck. Witness did not see any hand-cart on the road.

Michael O'Connell corroborated Brough's evidence, but said that he^ believed the horn was sounded before the accident occurred, and that Barnard caught hold 'of Maile when the car neared them.

The evidence given by John Henry Goldsworthy was similar in the main to that of previous witnesses, but in his opinion the car was travelling at an ordinary speed when it struck the men. r: (Proceeding.)