CAR OVER BANK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 70, 24 March 1939, Page 11

CAR OVER BANK

YOUNG MAN'S DEATH

INQUEST HELD

A verdict that John Martin Sangster, of Wellington, a bank clerk, aged 21 years, had died through injuries sustained when the motor-car he was driving overturned on the Western Hutt Road at 3.30 p.m. on March 5 was returned by the Coroner, Mr. E. Gilbertson, J.P., at an inquest held today. Mr. Gilbertson, in summing up, referred to the contradictory evidence, but said he would not comment on it. It appeared, he said, that the deceased, in endeavouring to avoid a collision with another motor-car, had swerved off the road and gone_ over a filling on the side. Mr. W. E. Leicester appeared for Sangster's relatives, Mr. W. P. Shorland for Mr. S. Eichelbaum, and Sergeant J. W. McHolm for the police. Lloyd Stanmore Jenkins, a resident of Weir House, and employed by the Public Trust Office, deposed that on March 5 he took the deceased, who was his cousin, out in a motor-car to teach him to drive. He had previously given him one or two driving lessons, though in his opinion Sangster had not had enough driving experience to act in an emergency. "When we were rounding a left-hand bend on the Western Hutt Road, about a mile and a half north of the Belmont station," he said, "we were travelling at a speed of between thirty and thirty-five miles an hour. I saw a motor-car (Eichelbaum's) drawn across the road in such a position as that at a glance there seemed to be no room to get around it. This car was facing the hill, that is, in a westerly direction. I could see the whole of the car and it continued to back about another six feet so that my cousin had no choice but to go straight ahead. In doing so my cousin had to avoid a lamp-post then on his left, and he went straight over the bank. "I consider that the accident was due to the car being manoeuvred in a place which was out of sight of any motorist approaching north around the bend. In my opinion, it was a very dangerous place to be turning a car, especially when there was a large piece of filling on the eastern side, in full view of cars approaching from either direction, on which the turning could have been made." Witness was of the opinion that an experienced driver -could not have avoided the accident. Dr. Ernest William Giesen testified as to the injuries received by the deceased Siegfried Eichelbaum, a company manager, said that about 3.30 p.m. on March 5 he was driving his car on the Western Hjutt Road en route for Dr. Giesen's residence. His wife and his two children and a Mr. Stix, of New York, were passengers. As he had not been to Dr. Giesen's for some time he passed the entrance to the doctor's drive before he noticed it! He stopped ' on the correct side of the road, and waited for two cars to pass before he backed the three or four yards necessary for him to get a run into the drive. The road was clear of traffic ; when he commenced to back his car. He then drove part of the way into the drive but was unable to completely negotiate the sharp turn in the drive unless he backed out again. He brought ; his, car to a stop with about three or four feet.os,^e^rd^^.<jf:^fe/'^ar|.i)tQ''k'' , trading over the road as he could not ; go forward any further. ; WHAT DRIVER SAW. When he halted his car he looked back and saw the other car flash into view and out Of the rear window saw it- turn a somersault in the air, The car went over the bank about opposite • the rear window of his own car. He had no idea as to how fast the other car was travelling but would say it I was at a fast rate. His car was stopped on the side Of the road that would be 1 used by the other car- As soon as the other car went over the bank he got ■ out and went to render assistance. In reply to • a iqUestion from Mr. Leicester, witness said that when 'he first saw the other car he was already moving forward into the drive. Cecilia Naomi Stavely, a married woman, residing at 70 Wellington Road, said that She was sitting in a motorvan which was parked on-the eastern side of the Western Hutt Road opposite Dr. Giesen's drive. She noticed a car, which was travelling along the Western Hutt Road in a northerly direction, stop just past the entrance to Dr. Giesen's drive. Her • attention \was then attracted by another motor-car which was approaching in a northerly direction round the bendw It was approximately 200 yards off when she first saw it; it was travelling at a moderate speed. "This car passed round the bend and ; was well round it when I noticed that , the first car had backed across the road and was right in its path," she said. "The second car had no room to pass, and I do not think it had room to stop when I first saw the other car across the road. The second car was ; forced to run off the bitumen on to ; . the filling where dvir car was parked. : The other car was still moving back- ■ [ wards. I noticed that the first car, L Which had backed across the road, • . moved forward before the occupants . got out to give assistance. It was a , I man Who drove it forward. It had ' t definitely been shifted when the constable checked its position." I "Can you tell us when Mr. Sangster's , car first started to slacken speed?" r asked Mr. Shorland. L Mr. Leicester: This is Only an in- . quiry into the cause Of the accident; ; my friend is making it perilously near an inquiry into negligence now. The Coroner: What we want to know is, Did the car move before the occupants got out to give assistance? Witness then stood down. " Constable R. G. Jones, of Lower Hutt, said he had been called to the scene of the accident at 4.10 p.m. He took measurements at the scene shown on a map produced in the courtroom. Clara Vera Eichelbaum said she Was ' specially looking out of the back of her 3 husband's car as he was negotiating the i entrance to Dr. Giesen's drive. She r saw the other car come round the j bend at a very'!fast speed. It had ample room to pass as her husband's car Was ' stationary and projecting very little ; on the bitumen. "The other car came t up to us at a very fast speed and, I without slackening pace at all, left the road almost opposite our car. I ] do hot think the brakes were applied ' at all," she said. The Coroner then briefly summed up L and delivered his verdict.