FATAL INJURIES AS RESULT OF FALL FROM TRUCK CAB

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1947, Page 4

FATAL INJURIES AS RESULT OF FALL FROM TRUCK CAB

A verdict that the cause of death was multiple head injuries and a fracture of the skull, received when she fell from the cab of a motor truck being driven by her husband on the Reefton-Grey mouth highway, was returned by the Coroner, Mr M. J. Fogarty, at the conclusion of the inquest at Greymouth today concerning the death of Eileen Agnes Wastney, aged 37 years, married, with six children, who was killed at Matai on April 10. The inqueSt was originally opened at Ahaura and adjourned. The proceedings today were conducted by Sergeant B. W. Wootton. The evidence of the husband of the deceased, Lewis Walter Wastney, was taken when the inquest was opened. He said that at about 4.15 p.m. on April 10 he left for Greymouth in a motor truck, accompanied by the deceased and two children. The deceased was sitting in the cab nearest the left hand doof, with the two children between her and the witness. When passing through Matai at about 30 miles per hour and about to climb a hill he was attracted by his child screaming and saw that the deceased had disappeared from the cab. He quickly stopped the truck and looked back to see the deceased lying on the left hand side of the road, about four feet from, the edge of the bitumen. The doors of the truck were in perfect order and could not have opened without pressure being applied. Constable A. W. Honey, of Ahaura, said that on arrival at the scene of the accident he found the body of the deceased lying on the roadside. Life was then extinct. An examination of the motor truck showed that the door lock on the left hand side was in order and if properly closed would not open unless pressure was applied. Dr. H. Schmidt, of Brunner, said he examined the body at 5.20 p.m. on the day of the fatality and was satisfied that death was caused by multiple head injuries and a fracture of the skull. .