DEATH IN MOTOR-CAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20977, 14 September 1931, Page 8

DEATH IN MOTOR-CAR.

CHILD LEFT ASLEEP.

EFFECT OF POISONOUS* GAS. [Br TELEGRAnr. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WANGANUI, Saturday. A two-year-old boy, Laurence Jnmes Healey, died under peculiar circumstances in a motor-car near Kauangaroa, 15 miles from Wanganui, early this morning. His parents had been to a dance, taking tho boy and a girl with them. Both children were left to sleep on a mattress on the floor of the car, and the patents looked at them two or threo times during the dance to see that they were all right. About 5.30 a.m. the parents left the danco, and when starting tho car the children woko up and spoke to their parents. There was trouble in starting tho engine of the car, and later on the road lights went out, and the car ran off the road and stuck in soft clay. The father went to return to the hall to get another car, and in tho meantime the peculiar breathing of tho boy attracted tho attention of the mother and another relative.

The boy was unconscious when picked up, and lie died in a few minutes. At tho inquest Dr. Adams expressed the opinion that death was due to carbon monoxide gas entering tho floor of the car, and issued a warning that it was a dangerous practice to leave children covered up asleep on tlio floor of cars.