GIG DRIVER'S DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23060, 10 June 1938, Page 14

GIG DRIVER'S DEATH

COLLISION WITH MOTOR-CAR SHAFT PIERCES WINDSCREEN Evidence that deceased had driven a horse and gig into a stationary motorcar was given at an inquest yesterday into the death of Walter Henry Neale, a farmer, aged 63, of East Tamaki, which occurred in the Auckland Hospital on May 15. The inquest was heard by Mr. F. K'. Hunt, coroner. Charles Leonard Podmore stated that he was driving his car along Atkinson Avenue, Otahuhu,. shortly before six o'clock on May li when he noticed a horse and gig approaching him on the wrong side of the road. The vehicle had no lights and the horse was trotting at a fast pace, "When about 30 yards away, witness saw that tho driver of the ;gig was making no attempt to move to the correct side of the road and witness stopped his car with the headlights on. The horse trotted into the front of the stationary car, striking its chest on the radiator. The gig swung round and the left-hand shaft went through the windscreen of the car just over the driver's head. The force of the impact lifted the 'par bodily about- 2ft. /to the right. . Corroborative evidence was given by Desmond Moor, who added that after the collision the horse reared up and raced back down the road. Evidence that ho had seen deceased drinking several. glasses of whisky in the bar of a hotel alb Otahuhu was given by Frank Ashby. He added that deceased wan acting as if hr-were drunk. The coroner found that death was due to injuries suffered by deceased when his gig collided with a car while he was drunk.