ELDERLY MAN'S DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 34, 10 February 1937, Page 13

ELDERLY MAN'S DEATH

VERDICT AT INQUEST DUTY OF CYCLISTS (ISy Telegraph—Press- Association.) PALMERSTON N./< This Day. , "This is not a case of culpable negligence. It is one of those very unfortunate things that happen," said the Coroner (Mr. A. J. Graham, J.P.), at the conclusion of the inquest into the death of William Henry Sykes, aged 77, a retired farmer, who died from injuries after being knocked down by a motor-car driven by Robert George Leydon, of Te Kuiti, in Main Street on ] February 3. A verdict was returned that death was due to hemorrhage of the brain following a fracture of the base of the skull, sustained when he was knocked down by the car. The Coroner said it seemed quite clear that the initial cause of the accident was the failure of a cyclist, in front of the car to give a proper sign that he intended to turn across the road into a right-of-way. The car driver had attempted to avoid the cyclist. The Coroner added that he was afraid a good many cyclists were careless anddid not take proper precautions to avoid accidents. Under the new regulations a cyclist should give . the proper indication when he proposed to alter his course. The secondary cause, the unfortunate acceleration of the car as it swerved towards the footpath, was brought about through the driver's foot having been put partly on the brake and partly on the accelerator. The driver's evidence was very frank in that respect, that the unfortunate incident had caused the car to career along the footpath, where it struck the deceased. It was not a case of culpable negligence; it was just one of those unfortunate things s that happened.