RECENT FATAL ACCIDENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 28 October 1941, Page 6

RECENT FATAL ACCIDENT

EVIDENCE AT TIIE INQUEST The inquest into the death of James David Burton, aged four years, son of i Mr and Mrs C. Burton. Lower Hutt, ' was concluded before the Coroner, Mr ' T. E. Maunsell, S.M., this morning. William Gourley Gorman said that on 15th October he was driving along Haven road towards Nelson at ap- , proximatcly 4.45 p.m. A lorry drove out from the wharf in front of him and he slowed down to allow it to gel ahead. He was driving at about 15 miles an hour. A lorry with a grab on it was approaching from Nelson and he saw a boy standing on the edge of the grass opposite the lime kiln watching it. Witness was about five or six feet from the boy when he made a sudden dash across the road. Witness applied his brakes but the boy was struck by the right headlamp of the car and was thrown to the side. To Mr M. C. 11. Cheek, who watched procedings on behalf of the parents, witness said he did not have time to sheer off to the left. Dr E. H. Clarke of the Nelson Public Hospital, said that the child was admitted to the hospital in an unconscious condition and died the next evening without regaining consciousness. The cause of death was concussion and lacerations of th& brain. Mrs M. E. James, who saw (he accident. gave corroborative evidence. She thought the accident was entirely due to the child running across the road in front of the car, and that no blame was attachable to the driver. The Coroner returned a verdict that death was due to concussion and lacerations of the brain, the injuries being accidentally sustained.