FATAL ACCIDENT

Grey River Argus, 12 February 1936, Page 8

FATAL ACCIDENT

INQUEST ON R. F. SINCLAIR. Further evidence was given before the Coroner, Mr. H. Morgan, S.M., at Greymouth yesterday morning, in tho inquest concerning the death of Ronald Furness Sinclair, 21, single, of Blaketown, who was killed on tho night of January 18, when a motor lorry, on which he was travelling, capsized into a gravel pit at Hay’s Mistake, near Aliaura. Evidence of identification was given by deceased’s father, when the inquest was opened on January 20. and after the evidence of the lorry driver was given yesterday, the inquest was adjourned until Friday morning, Senior Sergeant E. Quayle conducted proceedings for the police, and Mr. A. M. Jamieson represented the relatives of the deceased. Arthur Gerald Henburn. a mechanic, stated that on January 18 last, ho was employed by Edward Shirley, of Hokitika, as a lorry driver. He left Hokitika about 5 p.m. on that date, driving a six-wheeled motor-lorry, for Maruia, where Shirley was contracting. There were four men with him on the lorry, but he knew only two. Shackleton and Ronald Sinclair. They left Greymouth about 8 p.m., Sinclair and Shackleton being on the back of the lorry and the other two men in the cab with witness. It was the first time witness had been on the road. Between two and three miles past Ahaura, witness found the road very corrugated, so he proceeded on the dead centre of the road until he found his right-hand front wheel running into loose shingle on the right hand side of the road. The road seemed fairly wide. The headlights were good and were shining right ahead of witness on the centre of the road. It seemed that the road took a turn to the left. He found that the right-hand wheels were getting into loose shingle, so he stopped the lorry, with the idea of backing out. The moment he stopped, witness felt the lorry slip over to the right before he could reverse. He remembered hearing the glass in the windscreen cracking, but remembered no more until he found he was in the Grey Hospital. The lorry was loaded with timber and six drums of petrol, making about three tons, which the lorry was capable of carrying. He did not know the registered capacity of the lorry. He had had previous experience as a motor-lorry driver, having driven for eight months at Hororata. He had no liquor on January 18, nor to his knowledge, did anyone in the lorry. Witness did not hold a motor driver’s license at the time of the accident. The last one ho had ran out in March, 1934. Shirley did not enquire as to witness’s knowledge of Coast roads. Witness had been in Shirley’s employ only from the Tuesday until tho Saturday, when the accident occurred. Shirley had told witness to take things quietly on the trip. He started work at 8 a.m. on the day of the accident, and worked all day. At the speed he was going he would not have been in Reefton before midnight. To the Coroner: The brakes on the lorry, which was about five years old, were good. He had no reason to believe that anything went wrong with the lorry prior to the accident. He was going about eight miles an hour when the accident happened and had previously stopped some five chains away. The road was flat where the accident occurred, and he could not recall any bend in the road just prior to the accident. There were two men in the cab with witness, but he had plenty of room, and his attention had not been distracted from his driving. Witness ran about the length of the truck in soft shingle before he pulled up. He did not turn the wheel to the right, as he was driving along the centre of the road, and his arm wis not jostled. He could not explain how the lorry got over the edge. He was not sleepy or fatigued; all his attention was one his driving; thine were no shadows across the road; tho lights were functioning well, and though there was a slight drizzle, it was not sufficient to obscure the lights. Deceased and Shackleton were seated on the timber behind the cab. There was no other traffic along tha‘‘ part of the road at the time. When the roa'd seemed to witness to take a turn to the left. ho. kept straight on in the centre of the road, and then found the wheels in the loose shingle, on the right side. Before his evidence was taken in the inquest. Arthur Gerald Hepburn was charged with driving the lorry, not being the holder of a motor driver’s license to drive such a motor lorry. He pleaded guilty. He was convicted and fined 10/- with 3/costs.