"CAR DRIVEN TOO FAST"

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 116, 19 May 1930, Page 13

"CAR DRIVEN TOO FAST"

CRASHED THROUGH FENCE

GIRL'S DEATH FOLLOWS

Although the other three occupants of the car escaped injury, v motor accident in Tasma.ii street about 9 o'clock ut night on.Soth April'hail a, fatal result for' Dorothy Mary Middloton, aged 20. The car, driven by Albert Leonard Smith, who had come down the incline from Upper Tnsinan street, was steered to the right after passing the Itugby street intersection, to avoid another car, which had come out of Tiugby street. Smith's car crashed through a fence, struck the- side of a house, and'turned over on its side. Miss Middlcton received a lacerated wound on her left thigh, for which she received treatment over a period of ten days, but then tetanus set in, and sJio died at the- Wellington Hospital; on 6th ■ An inquest on the deceased was held before the Coroner (Mr. T. B. M'Neill, S.M.) this morning. Sub-Inspector Lopdel conducted the inquiry, and Mr. J. D. Willis appeared for Smith. Dr. G. 0. JacObscn gave evidence of having attended to the deceased shortly after the accident, and on subsequent days until sth May. When he first saw the deceased she was rather hysterical and begged not to be sent to the Hospital. On 2nd May the wound appeared to bo healing and he intended removing the remaining stitches on his next visit, but on sth May he found symptoms of tetanus, and lie sent the girl to the hospital immediately. He had since learned that her general condition of health was such- as to make her less resistant to other diseases than normal. Had he known that before,he would have insisted upon the deceased going to hospital in the first place-. On admission to the Hospital on sth May said Dr. Bernard Hooper, house surgeon at Wellington.-. Hospital, Miss Middloton was showing symptoms of severe'tetanus, and the-wound was covered with a dirty piece of linen. Ine deceased received the recognised treat, inent, but died in a convulsion the following day, from heart failure due to tetanus. Owing to another disease for I which the girl had been receiving treatj inent,, her general conclition of health was poor. • ■ , '. In answer to a question, Dr. "Hooper said tlfat the dressing on the wound was not a surgical dressing; it gave the appearance of having been put on by.'an unskilled person. ' Itccalled, Dr. .Tacobsen described the bandago he had put on the wound on 2nd tiny. He said he had given no ono instructions to dress the wound. . •. Dr. P. P. Lynch (pathologist to the Wellington Hospital), who made'a. post mortem examination of the deceased, said ho'was.of the opinion that the girl died from tetanus, following an injury. W Mr. Willis, Dr.' Lynch! said that one could say in a general way that the -deceased's .powers of resistance of any form, of infection would be diminished by the disease from which she had been suffering previously. Ethel Dooldn, a companion of the deceased said that she and Miss Middleton -joined a few friends at Mrs. Davis s house, 125, Tasman street, a little- before 9 p.m. on .25th April. There they met Smith and another man, with whom ?koy. left in a motor-ear. The witness then described the accident. Questioned by -the Coroner, Miss Doolan said that she did not dress Miss Middleton's wound, nor had she seen the deceased touch tho wound. Albert Leonard Smith said ho was a tun. eller, employed at Tawa Flat When the a cident happened he was driving to two girls to town. He estimated the speed of his car at the Eugby street intersection at'3o miles "an hour.-Sub-Inspector Lopdcll ; said that the measurements that had. been taken showed that tho distance from the northern kerb of Rugby street to tho house alongside which the car stopped, W^SlKat he did notary his, brakes immediately he -aaw• the ot ci ,ar because he thought he might inoicl

Coroner; in summing up, said that the evidence showed that the motor-car in which Miss Middleton was a passenger was . driven at a speed o-reatly in excess of a safe speed, paitieulariyas the car was approaching an intersection. The otner car,, he . had been told, was also travelling at af a y high speed, with the result that bmith had to make a, manoeuvre. "It is miraculous m the ciieumstanccs.l suppose that only one person, was injured,- continued Mr M'^ei 1. <' In ordinary circumstances I take it tint it is possible nothing. further might have occurred from the wound received by the deceased, bijt untorUvnatelv after she had been attended to -and I find properly attended to by Dr. Jacobsen from eight to ten daystctaims developed, with the result, that she died. . . I am satisfied also, although Dr. 'Jaoobsen suggested m the first place that she' should go to hospital for treatment, that the deceased refused to go, and, of course the doctor could not compel her to go. _ .. A verdict was returned that the deceased died from heart failure, due to tetanus, following an in 3 ury to her thigh received as a result of a motor•cir driven.by Albert Smith, overturn-