LOADS ON LORRIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22470, 14 July 1936, Page 10

LOADS ON LORRIES

MARKER LIGHTS ADVOCATED CORONER AT DOUBLE INQUEST [iiY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] BLENHEIM, Monday The opinion that motor-lorries carrying overhanging loads should display marker lights was expressed by the coroner at an inquest to-day concerning the deaths of Leonard Leslie Hart, aged 26, married, and George Gordon Davidson, aged 33, married, two farmers of Hillersden, 30 miles from Blenheim. Deceased were fatally injured in a collision between a motor-car driven bv Davidson and a lorry driven by Mcrvyn Albert Prentice, near Wairau Valley, on the evening of June 15. It was stated in evidence that the vehicles met on a straight, wide road. The lorry driver, aware that his load, consisting of heavy logs, overhung the deck, pulled as far as possible to his correct side of the road. Davidson, who was following a course along the centre of the road was evidently dazzled by the lorry's headlights, and did not see the projection, with the result that his car crashed into the deck of the lorry and the logs alongside the driver's cab. The side of the car was ripped out by the terrific impact and Davidson was terribly injured. Ho died in hospital a fortnight later. Hart, who was seated immediately behind him, was killed instantaneously. The coroner, in exonerating the lorry driver, said it was quite evident that Davidson misjudged the position as a result of the dazzling lights in the drizzling rain.