CAR COLLIDES WITH CART.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 207, 16 August 1927, Page 7

CAR COLLIDES WITH CART.

A SUBSEQUENT DEATH.

EXTRAORDINARY STORY

Wellington, Aug. 16. A somewhat remarkable incident occurred in the early morning of August 5 after a motor car driven by James Hargreaves, of 4 Karori street, Miramar, collided with a City Corpoation milk cart, driven by William Patrick O’Gorman. The story told of Victor Wilde Smith, married, aged 31, of 4 Karori street, Miramar, who was an occupant of the car and died in hospital on August 10 from the result of the injuries, was that with a dent in his head as big as an average fist, with a bad fracture of the skull and with a bone driven some inches Into the brain, he yet could tell his friends that he was feeling “quite all right" and walk away. He was found later in the Killjirnie tramwayshed. Smith was quite conscious when he was admitted to the hospital on August 5. After an operation he rallied for a few days, but died not long after a second operation. The evidence showed that deceased, Hargreaves and some others in the car had been to a dance party. Port wine was drunk, but the driver and the deceased were sober when the collision occurred. Both the car and the milk wagon were on the wrong side of the road going in the same direction. Hargreaves said he was travelling at 15 miles an hour and did not see the milk cart, which, he contended, had no lights, until too late to avoid a collision. O’Gorman said his vehicle had lights. The night was very wet and visibility poor.

As it would be possible there would be an action for negligence agaiust the C*tv Council, the coroner, Mr. E. Page, S.M., said he would not comment on the evidence beyond saying that, apart from being on the wrong side of the road, neither party appeared to be negligent. His verdict was that deceased died on August 11 from injuries received in a collision at Kilbirnie on August 5.