ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 281, 12 November 1929, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

I Per Press Aiiiociatlou.l

The circumstances leading to the death of Alfred Charles Samuel Wilson, a commercial traveller, who was killed when a motor car overturned on the main Paeroa —Thames road on October 13, were enquired into before the Coroner, Mr. Lucas, in Thames. The car was a two-seater, the passengers being Sidney West and two girls, Lucy Alley and Evelyn White, all of whom attended a dance at Hikutaia. leaving there for a drive towards Thames at 2.30 a.m. A passing motorist found the party on the roadside, with Wilson in a dying state, West severely injured and the girls slightly so. Evidence showed that there had been no drink at the dance. West said that when the car •was travelling at 40 miles an hour it got into the grass .at the side of the road and capsized' twice. The Coroner found that Wilson had been accidentally killed, being thrown rrom a car driven by himself which swerved and overturned. ,

The death occurred at the Timaru Hospital last night of Thomas Rooney, of Kingsdown, as a result of injuries received in an accident on the Main South road in the early hours of Sunday morning. The deceased, who was riding a motor cycle with a sidecar attached, was proceeding south when the sidecar struck a bicycle which was being wheeled up a grade by Henry Holmes, of Normanby. The impact capsized the motor cycle, and Rooney was thrown heavily on to the bitumen road. He suffered severe head injuries, nnd failed to regain consciousness.

When a prospective lady tenant was being shown over a vacant house at Alma street. Wellington, at about 11 o’clock yesterday morning, she happened to push open a door, revealing a body cf a man. The head rested in a gas oven which was turned full on, and apparently the body had been lying there for two days. The deceased was identified as a labourer named A. Stewart, who was a former tenant of the house. Death was due to asphyxiation and ♦he taking of a dose of disinfectant. Three months ago a woman named Brooker, committed suicide in the same house by taking the same poison.

At the inquest at Auckland to-day on Albert Baker, aged 64 years, a ticket collector employed by the Devonport Steam Ferry Company, Alexander Russell, a fireman on one of company’s steamers, stated that’he and Baker were skylarking during the lunch hour, when Baker stepped back, tripped and fell over the side of the wharf. He got hold of Baker until he obtained help and Baker was lifted out of the water. Witness said that Baker and himself were on the very best of terms. Other evidence was that death was caused by head injuries. A formal verdict was returned. i