Fatal Motor Collision at Cheltenham

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6918, 23 July 1932, Page 8

Fatal Motor Collision at Cheltenham

INQUEST INTO DEATH OF MR. STEWART An inquiry was conducted by the Coroner (Mr. A. J. Graham) yesterday into tho circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. James R. L. Stewart, farmer, of Kiwitca, who succumbed in hospital to injuries received as a result of being knocked down by a motor car near Cheltenham about 11.30 on the morning of Juno 24. Senior-Sergeant Whitchouso conducted the inquiry.

Mr. Mason (Fcilding) appeared for the relatives of deceased and Mr. Cullinanc (Fcilding) for the driver of the car. Sydney W. Morrison, farmer, of Marton, gave formal evidence of identification.

Mrs. R. Ward, wife of the schoolmaster at Cheltenham, said that when looking out of a window, slw saw ucccascd walking up the road with the wind blowing against him. He had an overcoat on and he seemed to have difficulty iu moving against the wind. When she saw him first he was on his right hand side but soon after he went across to the left hand side. There were no footpaths and it was necessary to walk on the road. Mrs. M. B. Hill, of Cheltenham, said she also saw deceased walking up the road on the left and talking to himself. He then crossed to his right and witness observed a car at the top of the hill. As the car descended deceased started to cross over to the left again and was struck by tho motor about tho middle of the road. To Mr. Mason: When the car struck tho man, it was on the wrong side of the road and she thought the back of tho car hit deceased. To Mr. Cullinauc: The driver of the car, it seemed to her, tried to avoid Mr. Stewart, who was hesitating. She heard tho brakes applied. To the Coroner: Deceased was lying on the roadside for an hour before assistance came.

Frederick Henry England, farm hand, of Waituna West, said he was the driver of the car which struck Mr. Stewart. When witness started to descend the hill he saw deceased on witness’s left. A swerve was made to the right to give the , man room but when witness got about seven yards from him, deceased started to cross tho road. It appeared as if deceased had got a fright and did not know where he was going. Witness hurriedly sworved to the left to try and avoid a collision, but without success The right hand rear side of the car struck tho man and the swerve sent tho motor into the ditch on the side of the road. His pace along the road would have been anything up to 25 miles per hour. Everything happened suddenly but even now he could not think of anything he could have done to have avoided the collision. To Mr. Mason: When witness was at tho top of the hill the car was travelling along the middle of the road. Deceased was then four chains away. The car brakes were applied 19 feet before deceased was struck and witness sail he could not judge the car’s pace at the time the accident occurred.

To the Coroner, witness said he went over to tho right to give deceased room and it was hard luck that he should have decided to cross when he did. Witness was not hurrying to keep an appointment in Feilding. Mrs. England, a passenger in the car, said deceased would never havo been hit had ho kept where he had been walking along the side of the road. H. G. Long Ward, canvasser in the employ of the Manawatu Daily Times, who arrived at the scene of the accident shortly after it occurred, produced photographs of the road showing skidmarks of the car and tho motor as it lay in the ditch. Air. Stewart was removed to the hotel nearby soon after the accident so that there was no possibility of his having lain on the roadside for an hour as declared by a previous witness. The length of the skidmarks from whore the brakes were first applied to where the car finished up in the ditch, was 93 feet. The camber of the road is to the right going down the hili.

Constable W. N. Ferguson, of Kimbolton, said he was at the scene of the accident 25 minutes after receiving a telephone call and when he arrived there the doctor was already attending to deceased, who had been taken to the hotel nearby. Ou cither side of the hill were warning notices requesting motorists to slow down for the school.

Dr. Frank Ward, medical superintendent of the Palmerston North hospital, stated that deceased was admitted to the institution at 2.30 p.m., deeply unconscious and with large wounds on tfic scalp and cheek. Thcro was a compound facturc of the lower leg and a simple fracture of tho left ankle, in view of the patient’s condition no surgical remedies were adopted. On June 26 a septic condition of the compound fracture necessitated the removal of the limb. Deceased did not rally and died at 3 p.m. next day. The cause oi death was laceration of the brain following on severe injuries to the skull associated with the septic absorption from tho fractured leg. Tho Coroner returned an open verdict.