MOTOR CYCLIST’S DEATH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 121, 23 April 1936, Page 5

MOTOR CYCLIST’S DEATH.

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST. HEARING ADJOURNED. Per Press Association. • CHRISTCHURCH, April 22. Evidence of how a motor cyclist had been knocked from bis machine by a car and left lying on the road, was given by a witness at an inquest today’ concerning the death of Thomas Redmond Murphy.

A police photographer gave evidence of examining a car, the body of which, with the exception of the back, had recently been painted. Some of the mudguards had also been recently replaced. Raymond Leslie Moore gave evidence of seeing a collision late at night on the main north road. The motor cycle, be said, seemed to hit the side of the car, travel on for a few yards, and then crumple up. The car was travelling at 25 miles an hour and the motor cycle at about 20 miles per hour. After the accident the car slowed down, and then continued on at the same speed. Further on the car stopped, and someone got out and looked back to the scene of the collision. The car was then driven off while Murphy was lying on the road the motor cycle on top of him. Visibility was fairly bail with a heavv drizzle. The lamp of the motor cycle was burning.

The Coroner (Mr F. F. Reid. S.MA: Did you see a car in the yard of the Court this morning? Is it a simlar type of ear to the one you saw on the night or the accident ? IV it ness replied in the affirmative. Alfred Cecil Sturt, aged 21, salesman, of 531 Gloucester Street, said lie owned a car similar to' the one involved in the accident. He had held a driving license for a month. On the night of Fe.bruary 8 lie attended a dance at the Caledonian Hall and later took friends home to Belfast. Driving conditions were bad. The ear had a hand-operated windscreen wiper and all the side curtains were down. Shortly after passing the Papamu tram terminus he felt a slight bump, hut it -was not sufficient to cause comment among members of the party. Someone in the party said they bad been hit bv a car with only one headlight, but' he had not noticed any vehicle approaching before the bump. lan Cedric Lotrey, aged 18, now of Wellington, corroborated Sturt s evidence. He said the car was travelling well on the left side of the road. He felt “a little bit of a bump, which semed like a car going over a sunken drain. The reason they did not report the bump for so long afterward was that they feared the possibility that Murphy had been struck by their car and that they would get into trouble for not having done so sooner. They reported it when they knew detectives were inquiring. The inquest was adjourned until Friday. t ■