STONY CREEK FATALITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22903, 10 June 1936, Page 5

STONY CREEK FATALITY

DEATH OF A MOTORIST CORONER’S INQUEST (Special to Daily Times) BALCLUTHA, June 9. The adjourned inquiry concerning the death of the young man Basil Steel, a law clerk, of Gore, aged 20, who was killed in a motor accident on the Main North road, three miles from Balclutha, in the early hours of the morning of May 11, was reopened before Mr A. E. Russell, J.P., acting coroner, and a jury comprising Messrs G. W. Guest (foreman), R. Craigie, J. Wilcocks, and W. Gray, at the courthouse, Balclutha, to-day. Constable Boyle conducted the inquiry on behalf of the police, and Mr R. B. Bannerman, of Gore, appeared for the relatives of the deceased. Charles D. Taylor, the young man who had been in the car with the deceased, appeared in court with his left arm in a sling and bearing marks indicating that his head had been severely damaged as a' result of the accident. His full name, he stated, was Charles David Taylor, aged 21, single, and by occupation a radio salesman at Gore. The deceased possessed a light Morris car, and on the afternoon of Saturday, May 9, he left in the car with the deceased for Dunedin, which they reached about 6.30 p.m. They stayed at the Carlton Hotel, and the witness was in deceased’s company until after midnight on the Saturday. On the Sunday night, between halfpast 10 and 11, they left Dunedin for Gore. They did not stop on the road. About half an hour after leaving Dunedin witness fell asleep, and was not conscious of anything more until he awoke on the Monday morning in the Balclutha Hospital. On leaving Dunedin the deceased seemed quite normal, and had not complained of feeling sleepy or tired. Witness could not say at what speed the car travelled or how the accident happened. Dr D. G Radcliffe, of Balclutha, said that about 3 a.m. on Monday, May 11, he was called to the scene of the accident, and found one man on a seat in a motor car and the other by the roadside, both in a comfortable position, and covered against the cold. Passing motorists had evidently found the men and put them in the position in which he found them. The deceased was unconscious and was suffering from a depressed fracture of the skull and minor bruises and abrasions. The other man was also unconscious, and he had them remsved to Balclutha Hospital, where the deceased died a few hours after admission. He considered the men had been lying by the roadside for more than an hour when he reached the scene of the accident. He noticed their ear, which had evidently collided with a telegraph pole. Judging from the marks on the latter the impact must have been a severe one. The car was badly wrecked, and he would say that it must have been travelling fast—probably 40 miles an hour. There was a deep ditch which the car must have crossed before hitting the pole. .There was some loose gravel on the road, but not enough to cause a skid. _ Gorton Russell Stone, architect, of Dunedin, said that on the morning of May 11 he was going by car from Invercargill to Dunedin with three passengers. It was misty, but a good driving night. He passed through Balclutha at 2.30 a.m. and when three miles north of the bridge he turned a corner and saw an overturned car lying on its left side, the occupants still in it. When witness pulled up he heard the engine of the overturned car still running, and the car was in gear, with one rear wheel turning. The car was badly damaged, the front axle and wheel being torn away altogether. Witness and his companions immediately righted the fallen car, and found two unconscious men inside. Witness turned and drove into Balclutha to an all-night service station, and he then rang up a doctor. Returning to the scene he took measurements, and found that it was 11 o feet from where the car left.the road to the telegraph pole. The ditch was three feet wide and 18 inches deep. Ihere were no skid marks, and evidently the car had kept straight on when it turned the’corner, instead of following the curve of the road. He and his companions were of the opinion that the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. It was a particularly easy piece of road. The driver _ might have been deceived by the position of the ditch, which did not follow the road, at this point. He had formed the opinion that the speed of the deceased s car could not have been less than 40 miles an hour. Andrew Mackie, motor mechanic, of Balclutha. described the injuries to the wrecked ear—To Mr Bannerman: It was possible that if the back tyre had been punctured before reaching the turnin" in the road it might have caused the car to go straight on in place of following the curve of the road. Constable Boyle gave evidence as to vifiitinpc the scene of the accident, and in company with Mr M Dowell, traffic inspector, taking photographs (produced).

On May 21 lie received from the superintendent of police. Dunedin, a report from Dr D’Ath, Government analyst, that a post mortem had been held on the body of the deceased, and no trace of liquor had been found. . The jury returned a verdict that the deceased died as the result of a motor car accident, caused through driving at an excessive speed for a light car, and through misjudging the curve in the road owing to the ditch alongside running at a tangent from the road. The actingcoroner expressed eympathv with the relatives of the deceased.