SUDDEN DEATH

Northern Advocate, 23 January 1929, Page 4

SUDDEN DEATH

LORRY OVER BANK,

THE INQUEST.

The inquest into the death of Ray "Wilson, -who was killed on the road between Kawakawa and Towai early yesterday morning, was heard before Mr J. H. Luxford, S.M., Coroner, at Kawakawa last evening. Jacob Frengley, medical superintendent of the Bay of Islands Hospital, certified that life was extinct when deceased was brought to the hospital at 7.15 a.m. A post-mortem examination disclosed that deceased had a severe crushing injury u> his chest. Almost all the ribs were broken and

both lungs were lacerated. The cause of death was shock following injuries to the chest. Thomas Tautari testified that he helped Ray Wilson to fill his lorry with metal to be carted from the Halfway Greek quarry to the Towai Road. About a, quarter to six yesterday morning he was on the lorry returning to

■the quarry. Deceased was driving, and when approaching Maromaku the righthand wheels got into the water-table. Wilson tried to turn out, pulling hard at the steering wheel. When at length the wheels got out of the water-table the lorry shot across to the other side of the road and went over the steep bank. Witness fell clear of the lorry as it rolled over him, without being hurt. When witness looked up the lorry was standing still at the bottom of the drop and Wilson was lying alongside. Witness ran down to him, finding him alive, but not able to speak. _ A man came down from the road and others picked the injured man up. Wilson had been working all night, from fi.45 p.m. the day before. He wanted witness, who had been with him all the time, to drive, as he was so tired. They were to have knocked off at 6 a.m. and were on their last lap.

Sitting outside Ms cowshed on the morning of the accident J. A. S. M. Clank, farmer, of Maramaku, said he had a good view of the Towai Bead. Two lorries appeared, the one driven by deceased being about 80 yards be* hind the other. . The leading lorry was proceeding at a moderate speed, but that driven by deceased was overtaking it at a comparatively fast rate, so much so that witness remarked on the speed to his son. Deceased’s lorry appeared to run between the other lorry and the bank. It seemed to pause momentarily and then shot at right angles across the road and down the steep drop on the left-hand side of the road. At the time deceased’s lorry was just behind the first lorry. Witness rode the three-quarters of a mile to the spot, where he found deceased, whom he considered was then dead.

A shift boss employed,by the Public Works Department at present engaged on the Towai Road work, said that as far as he knew, deceased, who appeared to be about 28 years of age, was on an eight-hour shift. Subsequent investigation of'the marks showed that the right-hland wheels of the lorry had got into the water-table, • travelling in the gutter for some distance. The lorry then swung out pf the water-table straight across the road and over the bank.

Evidence, of identification was given by Michael Farrell, who said he knew the deceased also by the name of Ranata Wiremu. When he arrived at the accident scene the lorry was lying at the bottom of a sharp drop 62 feet from the edge of the bank. He had been unable to ascertain if deceased had a motor driver’s license.

John Pohc, a farmer* residing at Kamo, said he owned the lorry, and deceased had only started working for him the day before. Witness was being paid by the yard to cart metai from the quarry to the Towai Road, and witness engaged deceased to do the driving, paying him £2 15s a ■week and found. Deceased started work oi Monday at 6.15 p.n». and worked through the night. Witness wanted to relieve him at 4 a.m., but Wilson wanted to do four hours extra. He would have received overtime for the extra four hours. Both from watching him and being with him in the lorry, witness formed the opinion that deceased was a good driver, and assumed that he had a license.

The Coroner's finding was that Bay Wilson died on Tuesday, January 22, 1929, as the result of injuries received when the lorry he was driving ran off the Towai Boad, rear Maromaku. The death was the result of an accidental happening.