CYCLIST’S DEATH

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 219, 14 August 1928, Page 6

CYCLIST’S DEATH

MOTOR CYCLE SKIDS IN LOOSE METAL. EVIDENCE AT INQUEST. An inquiry w.as conducted at the Courthouso this morning by Mr A. J. Graham, Coroner, into the circumstances surrounding the death of Hugh Mooro, 20 years of ago. a farm labourer residing at Kimbolton. who passed away in the Palmerston North Hosiiitil on August 8 following his discovery in an unconscious state on the Feilding-Cheltenliam Road tho preceding evening. Senior-Sergeant Whitehouso conducted proceedings on behalf of tho police. Evidence was given by Dr. U. A. Forrest that deceased had been admitted to tho hospital on August 7 in an unconscious state, with scalp wounds on the top of the head and a fracture of the base of tlie skull. He bad never regained consciousness, dying the following night at 9.15 o’clock. Joseph Benjamin Rose, of Palmerston North, retired farmer, gave formal evidence of identification. Deceased was an expert motor cyclist, but had a reputation for fast travelGeorge Henry Garrett, of Feilding, motor salesman, deposed that, at about 5.45 p.m. on the day of the accident, while proceeding by lorry from Feilding to Eketahuna, he had found deceased lying on the road in an unconscious state, with a motor cycle on top of him. Witness lifter the motor oft and at once telephoned to the Feilding police. Two miles before reaching the scene of the accident witness was passed by a motor cyclist going in the same direction at about 40 miles per hour. No other vehicle passed witl ness between then and making his discovery. Witness liad. formed the opinion that the .accident had been caused by the motor cycle skidding in looso metal. . Constable Riddell, stationed at Feilding, stated that, on proceeding to tho sceno of the discovery., he had found deceased in a badly injured condition and .at once telephoned for a medical practitioner, who on arrival, ordered deceased’s removal to hospital. The road where the accident happened was a long, straight one, with loose metal on cither side. Skid marks made by the motor cycle were easily seen. . This concluded tlie evidence, whereupon the coroner returned a verdict that deceased had been accidentally killed through skidding in loose metal. “The cause of the accident,” he stated, “is quite clear; it is simply a caso of a fast-moving motor cyclist coming to grief through skidding.”