CAR FATALITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23599, 7 March 1940, Page 10

CAR FATALITY

YOUNG AIRMAN'S DEATH NEW ZEALANDER DRIVING AN UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT [from our own cod respondent] LONDON, Feb. 13 At Epping Court, Essex, on January 19, the adjourned inquest took place concerning the motor-car accident in mid-December in which a young airman, Leading Aircraftsman John Navlor, aged 19, was killed in collision with a motor-lorry. The car belonged to Wireless Operator J. H. Langridge, of Gisborne, who was driving. Both men had taken part in successful flights over Heligoland and had subsequently been granted special six days' leave. Early on the evening in question they had left King's Cross at 4.30 p.m., in the black-out, and the accident occurred at 5.30 p.m. on the Epping New Road, Buckhurst Hill. The pace had been very leisurely, as they were not due back at the air iase until midnight, a distance merely of some 60 miles. The evening was very dark but quite clear. The car ran into the back of the motorlorry, the driver having failed to see a tail-light. . There was no finding at all in regard to the light, which admittedly was there half an hour afterward, by which time medical aid had arrived and Langridge was able to return to the spot after his leg had been attended to. Already lie had recognised that his companion had received concussion. The Bench were most favourably impressed by the New Zealander's excellent service. record,, and by the fact that he was a teetotaller and nonsmoker.

There was no suggestion at all that there had been anything in the nature of a "joy ride.'' Langridge did not discern the tail-light of the lorry. Previously there had been a suggestion that it might have been hidden Dy the backboard being down, for someone in the lorry was said to have got out at the back. However, as already stated, there was no finding at all in regard to the light. The Bench made no record against Langridge, who is now back on duty after hospital treatment and convalescence. His injury was not serious, but the death of his young companion was a severe blow.