DEATH JOINS THE PARTY

NZ Truth, Issue 999, 17 January 1925, Page 6

DEATH JOINS THE PARTY

Tragedy Stalks Beside Revelry

Car Smashes Into Telegraph Pole.

(Prom "Truth's" North Otago Rep.)

The practice of motor car jaunts to the "borderline" for. alcoholic refreshments' arid a cargo for subsequent consumption is a frequent occurrence m all no-}icense areas, pamaru is well to the' 'fore with convivial excursions of this , description. Pne of these many jollifications was unhappily .attended with fatal consequences m the North Otago; centre last week, when a motor car driven by Ernest Heselwood, a local tobacconist, ci - ashed into a telegraph pole when returning from a' jaunt to the : Georgetown Hotel. The rear portion of the car came m violent dbntaet with the obstruction, which resulted m Robert James Young receiving fatal injuries. The deceased was a bootmaker aged 3S years, and a married man with a family. of three.

At the inquest, Heselwood, represented by Mr. Hjorring, related that on the day \ of the accident he' informed deceased that he was going to ' Peebles and deceased asked to ' accompany him. This witness agreed' to. That evening Edward Hair was m the car with witness and Robert . Turvey and James Robertson joined deceased to complete the party. Before * leaving,, witness, placed a two-gallon jar into the car m case a halt was made at the Georgetown Hotel. ■) . On arriving at Peebles witness delivered a gramophone and then- the party proceeded ;to Georgetown and an adjournment was made to the hotel. An hour later the party, .returned to Peebles and after witness transacted some further business the return journey was commenced at 11.30 p.m. : On nearing : Oamaru tho car seemed to skid and 'the back portion struck a telegraph pole.. He was travelling on. .the wrong side because the going was 1 better. .He slowed down, but on one of the occupants of the back seat ..(Hair) statins that., deceased' had only "received a slight knock, he continued to travel between 15 and 20 miles an hour. In Pamaru he stopped m front of Robertson's boot shop. Here Turvey and Hair left the car .and, accompanied by Robertson,' he drove deceased to the hospital. : In h|s opinion Hair and Turvey were not. drunk and were quite capable of looking aftar themselves. I Only one bottle of ale was opened m the car while a puncture was being, repaired. , • The first time witness saw .the deceased was when he stopped at..Robertson's shop. He 'then decided to drive to the hospital .• :'a deceased was bleeding freely from the -mouth. He remembered touching the. side of the road before he got to .the pole.'The skid occurred just as he was pulling out, but evidently he did : not ; pull - out far enougl with the result that he. collided - with > the pole. : . |;He " was ,• not speeding at the time of- the: accident.

Doctor Fitzgerald,' of the Oamaru H,ospital, stated .that, Heseiwood arrived at. the hospital at; Ti3o a.m. with an injuredman m a motorcar. He was of the opinion that Heselwood had had some liquor. He drove the carriip i o the hospital,- but witness considered that it would not.be safe for him to. drive down the hill again. Robertson, who was also m the car, appeared to have been drinking and there was; 71 general, smell of ; liquor! about the: car. Under the .pircumstarices -witness would not' alluv Heseiwood to drive the car back to Oariiaru,; as he was m an excited condition and his speech was incoherent. . 'In his opinion the cause .if death was; a fracture of the skull and internal bleeding. .7 ; ; j/ . V . V

PROVISIONS FOR THE MORROW. James Robertson said .that "tit 'the 'Georgetown Hotel he had two drinks, ■but he had no idea hojw many drinks. c the others had as they were out m - r the kitchen. Two dozen of .beer, were ' taken aw.ay- in the ear, but he was not *; sure if he.' got a bottle of ..whisky.. After L a stay ., of half an hour the return jour- 1 ney to Oamaru .was commenced. He was sitting on the front seat and went c to sleep: It was 'natural 'slumber ■.'.ana' i not produced, by alcohol: All, wer,a sober as' far as he knew. He had no : recollection of the journey ; until he , got into Oamaru m front of - ; his shop. ; ■.■ Turvey then said: "Bob's looking pretty 1 bad; you'd better get him home." The deceased,, he' thought,, was. taken first , to Dr. Scott's house and then to the hdapital.' Witness,' did' not know anything: .about the" accident as he; was :] sound asleep m the car. '■■' • * The Magistrate: What' brought you 1 to your senses? , ( Witness: Turvey touched me on the shoulder. '■ ..- •'•"•■•; The- Magistrate: I don't think much , o' your evidence. '.; ','■/ . . : | Robert Turvey, bootmaker employed, . by the. previous witness,' gave eyi- • dence-.as to going 'to .Peebles .and Gedi'getown with Hesel'wood. arid. ; the , others. He had several long beers and he ■.-.' thought' Robertson, had. the same. Hetelwood ' had a medium beer, but he was m the kitchen most ': oC the : time. A case of beer went into the car. -One or two bottles of beer. 1 were consumed on the way home when lleselwood. was transacting some business at Peebles. When 1 nearing Oamaru he felt the. car swerve and remem-. ,i bered it striking something. Hesel-' wood asked. if everything was .'..all right ' and Hair said: ' "Don't ,;stop here; nil 'jakeaioo.'." <. .He. got out. of the car and. woke -Robertson up, .telling-.him to look after deceased and '[get /him home.. With that he carried the case' of beer down Robertson's ' right-of-way . and then went .home. Nobody thought that the deceased: was. badly hurt. ■ The Magistrate:. What condition : were you in?— l had had a, drink or ; two. but was quite Sober. Robertson . was the only one iwho appeared to have had too much liquor. ; ; , . ■■.■.,•'■ PLACID PASSiDNGERS. • ; ; The Magistrate: Here was a man unconscious,; you had had ah accident, and .-the- car 'badly damaged, yet you took no further interest ;ih the matter; Your evidence is most' unsatisfactory.' Ed^yard. Alien Hair, hairdresser, said that at the Georgetown Hotel he was sitting m the kitchen with Heselwood, but' neither, of them had any liquor. The latter appeared nervous, but was quite sbber at the time-, of the accident.,: Witifess was sitting on the left' oide of. the car, with Turvey m the mid-' <Ue and" the deceased on, the right side.

After the post was struck he called out to ;Heselwood to stop as the deceased was unconscious and was bleeding- freely. Hezelwood slowed down and witness told him to hurry on to" the doctor as it was a serious, case. He thought that Heselwood' was going to lose control of the car when he grazed the second post. When the accident took place deceased appeared to be asleep. Thomas Hurley, barman employed at the Georgetown Hotel, stated that he supplied the party on the night of the accident with four beers and lemonade and raspberry m the bar and m the kitchen. The first drink was not paid fcr, but he could not say who paid for the others. There were two dozen of beer and a bottle of whisky • for Robertson and a bottle .of port, wine and two of fceer were put m the car for witness. They left somewhere about 10 o'clock, ■' the driver, Heselwpod, being quite sober. Robertson showed signs of having had drink, but the rest of the party appeared normal. His instructions were not to serve liquor after hours. Edward Michael Leydon, licensee of the Georgetown Hotel, said that some time after 9 o'clock he found several men m the kitchen. He inquired from the barman what they were doing there, but the latter did not 4nform him about the liquor they were taking away. He recognised Heselwood as one of the party. He ordered them outside. Robertson's appearance suggested that he had been drinking, but Heseiwood was quite rational. DRIVER ARRESTED. Constable Moore gave evidence' that m consequence , of c a- telephone message he went to the hospital, where he saw Heselwood drunk and not fit to be m charge of a, motor car. He arrested him and brought , him to the' police station on a charge of being drunk while m charge of a car. He examined the car and found it damaged and. a bottle of port wine on the floor. On questioning Heselwood he admitted that he had been, drinking that night. ■ Mr. Hjorring: You took a statement from this ' drunken man?— Yes, that statement was more for the inquest than the charge preferred against him. " The Magistrate: regretted 'that the evidence had been so entirely unsatisfactory. Some of the witnesses haft obviously not spoken the truth, aud he could not congratulate' them on their evidence. It was very apparent that certain witnesses had considered it was m Heselwoo&'s interest for them to lie. He did not intend to touch on the matter of whether the driver was intoxicated. That would be decided m other proceedings preferred against him; '•; It wa,s hard to believe that the party left Georgetown at 10 o'clock. Hezelwood was driving on the wrong side of the road as it was the better side, but at > the point where the accident occurred there was not much to choose from.. It Avas evident that the car grazed the • bank some r distance before it collided with the . post. This proved that there must have been some extremely, careless driving. There was no doubt that ,- Robertson : was drunk, probably helplessly drunk, as he/slept through the accident. Turvey's evidence was also very unsatisfactoryProm -his account of what took place he was. obviously not m a fit state to look after himself. The whole cir-. cumstances clearly showed that the party had gone put to get liquor:;. He found that the deceased had died of a fractured skull caused by collision of; a motor car driven by Ernest Heselwood. ■■■■''"■'- :