MOTORING TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Issue 25, 30 January 1935, Page 19

MOTORING TRAGEDY

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST

A HAMPERED DRIVER

(Special to the "Evening Post")

NELSON, January 29

An inquest concerning the deaths of Phyllis Merle Kite and George David McKay as- a result of a motor accident on the Hope Saddle early ou the morning of Christmas Day was held by the Coroner, Mr. T. E. Maunscll, S.M., today.

The evidence showed, that after a delay in. leaving Nelson' for Murehison in Spiers Murchison Motors car, a stop was made at Motupiko. The driver, Phillip E. Lynch, said he was tired and requested, a passenger, Leslie Stewart, whom he knew as a driver, to take a turn at the wheel, to which Stewart expressed his willingness. When aseeml- i ing the Nelson side of the Hope Saddlo all" the passengers except the deceased. Kite ami Stewart, wero asleep. Stewart's evidence was that Miss Kite asked him to allow her to remove her coat from under him. ne rose in his sent while she pulled the coat free and it fell on the gear lever. MeanVhile the car had lost speed and he glanced down to see that the gears wero free in anticipation of a change to low gear. On looking np again he found that the car was on the side of the road and it was too late to bring it back again, from the bank. The car rolled down, the hillside 121 feet. The Coroner said that apparently the accident was attributable to two / causes. Firstly, the driver had kept to his righthand side of the road, which was not necessary, as tho road was wide,_ and secondly the girl had distracted his attention by asking for her coat at a time when the negotiation of the hill required every cate. However, he would leave the verdiet open—that the deceased Miss Kite died as a result of a, fractured base of the sknll, and McKay as a result of spinal injuries, accidentally caused while riding in a car driven by Leslie Stewart.