HAYWARDS SMASH

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 4, 5 July 1939, Page 13

HAYWARDS SMASH

YOUNG MAN'S DEATH

INQUEST HELD

A verdict that Peter Imlay Frederick Saunders, an accountant, aged 21 years, died of injuries to the skull and laceration of the brain sustained while travelling in a motor-car that ran off the Haywards-Pahautanui Road and capsized, on May 14, was returned by the Coroner, Mr. E. Gilbertson, J.P., at the inquest today.

"It is a mysterious thing, this accident," Mr. Gilbertson said, when summing up. "The driver probably dropped off to sleep; that is the only possible explanation of it."

Sub-Inspector D. J. O'Neill conducted the inquest.

Sydney Archibald Wiren, a solicitor, said that on May 14, accompanied by the late Mr. Saunders and Mr. Shelly, he left Wanganui at 6.55 p.m. by motorcar. He was driving the motor-car when the party left and he intended driving right through to Wellington over the Haywards-Pahautanui Road. The motor-car was the property of Mr. Shelly and it was the first time he had driven it; he was quite familiar with the road. He recollected driving over the Haywards Road and crossing a number of bridges. In some parts he drove at approximately forty miles per hour and in other places at a slower pace. He had a fair recollection of someone asking him to sound the horn some time after the accident. - The Coroner: Do you mean that? Witness: Yes. What happened was that I suffered concussion and the last thing I remembered was passing a bridge before a hill. I have a very vague recollection of one or two things after the accident—l remembered them the following morning in hospital. The horn was sounded to attract the attention of passers-by. Witness added that he had no idea how long it was after the accident that the horn was sounded. He was not worrying about getting to Wellington at any fixed time. "Mr. Saunders was sitting in the' front seat with me and Mr. Shelly was in the rear of the car and was asleep for practically the whole journey," said the witness. "Mr. Saunders dozed off also and would have been asleep at the time of the acci-l dent." I NO INTOXICATING LIQUOR. j At no stage of the journey did he! feel like going to sleep and he did not think that would be the reason for the car leaving the road. They! stopped at no hotels on the way from Wanganui, and to his knowledge there was no intoxicating liquor in the car. The Coroner: Did you find the car difficult to handle? Witness: I do not think so. The only thing that troubled me was the control on..the floor for dipping the lights. , Sub-Inspector O'Neill: You say you are familiar with the road. Had you j ever driven over it at night before? Witness: I have driven over it at a I fairly late hour, but I do not remem- • ber having driven over it with the lights on. Dr. P. P. Lynch said he identified the body of Mr. Saunders, who was known to him and who was employed as an [accountant with Mr. P. S. GiUingham, of Wellington. Death was due to fracture of the skull and laceration of the brain. ! John Shelly gave evidence on the same lines as Mr. Wiren. He did not remember the impact at all, but recolI lected being in the car after it was involved in the accident. He rememberied telling Mr. Wiren to blow the horn to attract attention. They stopped at mo hotels. The Coroner: What about drinks before you left? ; Witness: We had none. John William Henry Guest, a company manager, said that at 11 p.m. on the day of the accident he was sitting in his car at the Public Works Department camp about a mile on the Wellington side of the Haywards-Pahau-tanui Road. He said a Mr. Simpson drew alongside and informed him that there had been a bad accident about three miles up the ro'adi ' Mr. Bruce Allan, who was in witness's car, left to ring for an ambulance and a doctor, and he went back to the scene with Mr. Simpson. None of the men appeared to have had any intoxicating liquor. Frederick Bruce Allah, a tractordriver for the Public Works Department, gave corroborative evidence. Constables H. H. F. Lissette and J. McConachy gave formal evidence. Edmund Walter Dinnie, a fingerprint expert and photographer in charge of the Criminal Registration Branch, described how he investigated the acci-dent-He produced a number of photographs and handed them to the Coroner. The Coroner: Yours is excellent evidence, Mr. Dinnie. I compliment you. Photographs at an inquest are worth all the plans in the world. The Coroner then returned his verdict.