ERROR OF JUDGMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22777, 10 July 1937, Page 22

ERROR OF JUDGMENT

FATAL ACCIDENT ON BRIDGE VERDICT AT THE INQUEST [by TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION*] BLENHEIM, Friday The conclusion that the accident had occurred owing to an error of judgment on the part of both drivers in estimating the distance between their vehicles was arrived at' by the coroner at the inquest concerning the deaths of Mr. Frank Donaldson and his son lan, who were killed in a collision between a motor-car driven by Mr. Donaldson and a motor lorry driven by Mr. Frank Albert Moreland on a bridge on the Wairau Valley road on the evening of June 19. The coroner added that he felt he should once again draw attention to the desirability of a regulation making it compulsory for all lorries to cany marker lights at night, indicating their overall width. Had such lights been on the lorry on this occasion deceased, who had the reputation of being a careful driver, would have taken extreme care when approaching the bridge to make way for the lorry, knowing by the lights that it was a lorry that was coming toward him. Death, in the coroner's opinion, had been caused by the overhanging edge of the lorry's platform striking deceased on the head.