BOY CYCLIST’S DEATH

Evening Star, Issue 22817, 27 November 1937, Page 25

BOY CYCLIST’S DEATH

COLLISION IN OCTAGON CAR DRIVER EXONERATED The driver of the car which collided with a 10-year-old cyclist, John Carnahan, in the Octagon on November 4, the boy dying from his injuries, was exonerated by the coroner (Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M.) at the inquest yesterday afternoon. A verdict was returned of accidental death, no blame being attachable to the driver of the car, William Ivan Watson. Sergeant Johnson represented the police, Mr E. J. Anderson appeared for the car driver, and Mr J. L. Calder for the boy’s parents. Thomas Miller (a schoolboy, aged 14 years), Archibald James Keith_ (a telephone clerk employed by White Star Taxis), and Kevin Thorn Cusack (a clerk), all eye-witnesses of the accident, and Sergeant Johnson gave evidence. William Ivan Watson, cross-examined by Mr Calder, said he first saw Carnahan when he was passing the arrows on the street surface in the Octagon. It was just after this that Carnahan appeared to change his direction towards Princes street. Witness was on the intersection before Carnahan, and considered that he had the right of way. He did not think the accident could have been avoided even if he had stopped the car as soon as he saw the deceased. Had the latter been in control of the bicycle he < was riding he could have passed behind the car or turned into George street. The Coroner said the deceased. was not in the habit of riding a bicycle, and on this occasion he had been further handicapped by the fact that the machine was too large for him, and he could not ride on the seat. Again, the bicycle had defective brakes, and the Octagon was somewhat steep at its junction with George street. The lad, seeinig the car, had swerved across the intersection, colliding with it. The driver of the car was proceeding south at a comparatively slow speed, and it was reasonable that he should not have been perturbed at first when he saw the boy, because if the latter had had control of the bicycle he could have avoided the car. The coroner could not say that the motorist was at fault in any way. He was not called upon to stop when he first saw the lad, and if he had been travelling fast he would probably have been across before Carnahan reached that side of the street. The verdict would be that death was due to oedema of the brain, resulting from extensive laceration of the brain substance caused by a collision with a motor car in George street on November 4.