FATAL ROAD ACCIDENT

Evening Star, Issue 25470, 28 April 1945, Page 9

FATAL ROAD ACCIDENT

WOMAN STRUCK BY MOTOR CYGLE

The inquest was held yesterday afternoon into the death of Mrs Julia Rubina Emma Wilson, aged 61 years, of 17 Kirkcaldy street, St. Kilda, who died in the Public Hospital four days after an accident on the Main South road, near Burnside, on the night of March 24. Mrs Wilson, one of four women passengers who had alighted from a motor car after a tyre had been punctured, was struck by a motor cycle driven by Leonard Henry Pettett, a soldier. The car was driven by John Inglis Hope. The coroner was Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M. Mr G. M. Lloyd represented the rider of the motor cycle, Mr E. J. Anderson the owner of the motor cycle and the insurance company concerned, Mr C. H. Stevens the driver of the motor car, and Mr I. A. Wood Samuel Thomas James Wilson, the husband of the deceased.

Hope, a funeral director, said that on the night of the accident he stopped his ear along King Edward street, and while there met four ladies whom he had known for some years. They said they desired to go to Mornington but could not get a taxi, so as he first had to go to Green Island he consented to take them there with him and to Mornington on his way back. After reaching the first right-hand bend past the junction of the Kaikorai Valley road and the Main South road his left rear wheel punctured. As the camber of the road made it difficult to use the jack he drove across to the eastern side facing Dunedin. There was almost no room for any traffic to pass between his car and the eastern side of the road. While stationary _ the car lights Wero in the dim position. He was trying to adjust the jack when_ he heard a shout from one of the ladies, all of whom were out of the car. Mrs Wilson ivas lying on the ground and had received an inurv to her left leg above the ankle. The only damage to the car was a broken half-window in the front door, and the glass in the rear door was also broken. Pettett, the rider of the motor cycle (owned hy William Dennison, of Preston Crescent, Belleknowes) said that with a pillion rider, Reginald Alfred Baker, now overseas, he proceeded from Dunedin to Brighton. IJe saw the motor car ahead of him on its incorrect side and on the tar-sealpd portion. He estimated he was about 15 vards to 20 yards from the car when he veered off the bitumen on to the unhealed portion of the road on the left side. His speed waR then about 25 miles an ho\-r. At this point he saw a person step, he thought, from the rear of the car and wo.lk towards the left of the vehicle. He was not able to avoid hittinT this person with the le.ft foot rest. The impact threw her to the left., and Baker was thrown from_ the n !l 'ion spo*-, witness himself fall-' inn; shortly niter and fracturing his collarbone. The evening was fine, the road surface' dry, and visibility fair. He had gone to the left side of the oar ns ho thought it the correct course to ndont. Constable W. Devine. of Green Island, said that he arrived at the scene of the accident at 10.40 p.m. The tracks on the road showed that the rider of the "motor cycle had passed between the car and the grassland in doing so had collided with Mrs Wilson, who was lying on the road 16 feet from the rear of the car,

;■;• Questioned by Mr Lloyd, the constable Said there was no evidence that the driver of the motor car or the motor cycle had consumed any liquor. Evidence was also given by Dr W. V. Macfarlane, house surgeon at the Public Hospital; Dr W. D'Ath, who conducted a post mortem examination of Mrs Wilson; and three of the passengers in,the car—Mrs L. A. Todd, of the Caledonian Hotel, Mrs R. V. O'Brien, of 8 Dundonald street, Tainui, and Mrs M. L. Lampard, of 5 Agnes street, Mornington. Reviewing the evidence, the Coroner said that t£e driver of the motor cycle' would have no reason to believe that the car was on its incorrect side of the road as he was rounding the bend where the accident occurred. The coroner could only accept under the circumstances the evidence of Pettett that he waß travelling at 30 miles an hour and reduced that speed to 25 miles an hour when he neared the stationary car. It was unfortunate that Mrs Wih son was between the car and the bank —probably on the gravel off the bitumen. The Coroner added that he did not think it proper for him to add anything more about the accident, except that the car was on its incorrect side, and that the driver of the motor cycle could only go to the extreme left side of the road and attempt to pass the car. The coroner's verdict was that Mrs Wilson died at the Publio Hospital on March 28 from shock as the result of injuries accidentally received whon she was struck by a motor cycle on March 24.