CYCLIST KILLED BY CAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 June 1935, Page 7

CYCLIST KILLED BY CAR

“HIT AND RUN” ALLEGED

“GO FOR YOUR LIFE”

[PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

WELLINGTON, June 14.

An inquest was held to-day, regarding the death in hospital of Norman Anderson, of Waimatuku, near Invercargill who was struck by a motor-car at the corner of Willis and Willeston Streets, Wellington, about 10.40 p.m., on May 6. Evidence was given by eye-witnesses that the car was travelling at high speed, and did not stop.

The driver, Patrick Thomas Syron, said that there were three others in the car. He approached the intersection at from fifteen to twenty miles an hour. He pulled to the centre of the road to avoid a stationary car. Something struck the windscreen and broke the glass. •• He pulled at the brake, but the person sitting beside him. said he thought that it was all right. He looked back, and could not see anything, and he continued on up Willis Street. “

When the Sub-Inspector of Police asked at this stage where he went, counsel for Sy.ron objected to any further questioning. He said that the only duty of the Coroner was to ascertain the manner of death. The Coroner said he thought, however, that the question where Syron went might have a bearing and the questions were continued. Syron said he left the car in College Street; five or ten minutes’ walk from his home. He did not want his people to see that the windscreen was broken.

The Sub-Inspector: But then you did not know you struck anyone? Syron said he knew then. He also said that after the accident, one of his passengers said: “You have hit a man' —go for your life!” As..a result of what he was told, he continued on. The next time he saw the car was at the Police Station. He did not know the car had been found at Houghton Bay. The Sub-Inspector: Have you any idea how it got there? Witness: I don’t wish to answer that. Why don’t you wish to answer it? You must give the reason. —I might incriminate someone else. That is your reason then? —Yes, it is. , Not that you might incriminate yourself ip any way; it is that you might implicate others? —Yes. Well you have to answer it now. - Mr. Stewart: It is a deliberate trap. The Coroner said that the witness need not answer the question. After further questioning, witness said he admitted he was driving the car at the time of the accident. Mr. Stewart then said that there was nothing else required fc.r the purpose of the inquest. The Coroner: What about sobriety? Mr. Stewart said that had nothing to do with it. The tracing of the witness’s movements throughout the evening had no bearing on the inquest. The Coroner said he would like to know if the witness had been drinking before the accident. . .If he was sober it might have been purely an accident. The Sub-Inspecto,r said that the object of the inquest was to find out hpw the deceased met his death, and all surrounding circumstances. Continuing his evidence, Syron said he had three drinks between 5.30 and 6 p.m. , To Mr. Mazengarb, witness said he never saw the body of a man on the bonnet of the car. Mr. Mazengarb: Who removed the glass from the car? Witness said he did not wish to answer on the grounds of incrimination.

Do you know that glass was removed from the car. —I don’t want to answer that. To further questions put by Mr. Mazengarb, witness said he did not know that Anderson was dead until 5 p.m. next day. He did not report the accident to the police.

PASSENGER’S EVIDENCE. A passenger in the car, Roy Hamilton Dellow, of Island Bay, company secretary, said that Syron and he went into town in the car, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. The driver, he thought, was Syron, with Taylor sitting next to him. Coming into Willis Street, the car was not travelling at more than 20 to 25 miles an hour. He felt a bump, and the windscreen broke. When he looked back, the car was past the stationary car at the kerb, and he could not see anything else. Sub-Inspector: Was anything said then, or immediately afterwards, about what the car struck? Witness: No, I don’t think so. Witness added that he remembered someone saying something like, “We’ve hit- something. It is alright. Get away on!” When they arrived at College Street, somebody said, “I think we hit a man!” Nothing more, he thought, was said. He himself wanted to get away home. Detective Brosnan said that, at 2.30 a.m. on the same night, he saw blood and fragments of bone on a verandah post, and two other posts about 14 feet away were slightly grazed. On the following evening, he discovered a car parked at Houghton Bay off Queen’s Drive. Syron came to the station that day, and reported that his car had been stolen from Holland Street between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. The car’s windscreen was broken.. There was a graze on the left-hand side, and spots of blood on the inside of the glass on the front left hand door. This car was later claimed by Syron. “I am satisfied that the car was travelling through the intersection at an excessive speed at a corner where one should take extra care,” the Coroner commented. “The evidence of Syron and those with him is not compatible with the weight of evidence. I am satisfied that the car was going at more than 25 miles an hour. It is not quite clear whether the deceased was keeping a sharp look-out. Scully’s having refrained from attempting to cross the road would almost point to the view that the deceased was not looking out on his side.” The Coroner found that Anderson died at the Public Hospital from injuries received by being struck in Willis Street, by a car driven by Syron.