ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21308, 13 April 1931, Page 8

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

DEATH OF A MOTORIST PUZZLING FEATURES. (Pee United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, April 12. Rather puzzling features attended the death of a motorist in the city on Saturday afternoon. Jervois quay was almost deserted in the stormy weather at 4 p.m. when a passer-by noticed a small motor car at rest across the footpath, which it had mounted before colliding with the electric power sub-station. The- driver, with a cut on his head, was hanging over the front right-hand door, and the ambulance men who were called from the depot nearby found from a brief examination that the man was dead. The police were communicated with, and the body was taken to the morgue, where later it was identified as Joseph Nind, aged about 65, who lived at Ocean \ iew. He was a butcher by trade, and leaves a widow and two grown-up children. It is thought that Nind must have had some sort of seizure while driving along the road, and lost control of the car, which crashed into the sub-station. The windshield was broken, and Nind was cut on the head, but although the cut went to the bone, there was no fracture, and his injuries were not such as would cause death. No one, it seems,_ was a witness of the accident. The police expect that the post-mortem will reveal that Nind collapsed and died from heart failure. A FARMER’S DEATH (Per United Press Association.! CHRISTCHURCH, April 11. Arthur Roscoe Morten, of Mount Pleasant, a well-known farmer, was found dead this morning with his head blown off, and a gun nearby. At the inquest to-day, the coroner (Mr H. A. Young, S.M.) found that death was due to a bullet wound inflicted by Morten himself while in a depressed state ot mind due to ill-health. Mrs Morten gave evidence that her husband had been greatly depressed, _ but had never threatened or mentioned suicide. Dr Richard Anderson said he attended Morten during the past year. The deceased had a dilated fatty heart, and was greatly depressed about his health. DEATH FROM ELECTRIC SHOCK (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, April 10. This evening a young man named Hmdle (his Christian name is not yet ascertainable) died in the hospital from an electric shock received early this afternoon at Governor’s Bay. He climbed an electric light pole with the intention of taking a photograph, and he touched one of the wires and fell to the ground, a distance of 20 feet. He was brought to the hospital at 4 o’clock, and died at 5.30.

PILLION RIDER INJURED A youth named Thomas Landreth, 19 years of age, who resides at Macandrew Bay, was admitted to the Public Hospital at 4.45 p.m. yesterday suffering from a fractured right leg, caused by a motor cycle on which he was riding pillion colliding with a motor car near the intersection of Miller street and Main North road, North-East Valley. The driver ot the cycle escaped unhurt. OLD MAN’S SUDDEN DEATH An old man named John Thomas Dove, aged 77 years, who resided at 273 Main North road, North-East Valley, dropped dead outside the gateway of a residence in Montague street at 4.15 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Dr de Lautour, who had been attending the deceased, certified that death was due to natural causes, and an inquest will therefore not be necessary. INFANT FOUND DROWNED The local police received word from Cromwell yesterday afternoon that the infant son of Mr 6. J. Crabbe, of Bannockburn, had been found drowned in a large bucket of water underneath a table in Mr Crabbe’s residence shortly after midlay on Saturday. An inquest was to be held at Bannockburn yesterday before the coroner (Mr E. Jolly).