CYCLIST’S DEATH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26197, 6 July 1946, Page 8

CYCLIST’S DEATH

FATAUTY NEAR BERWICK CONCLUSION OF INQUEST An inquest into the death of Robert Charles McDiarmid, aged 55. a labourer, of Woodside who died in the Dunedin Hospital on April 28 from injuries received on the Huntly road, Outram, was concluded yesterday, Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., sitting as coroner. Detective Sergeant Macdonald Brown conducted the inquiry and Mr C. H. Stevens appeared for Harold Alexander Carmody, a grocer s assistant of Berwick, whose car ran oft the road near the spot where the deceased was found lying in an injured condition beside his cycle. . „ Dr E F D’Ath, professor of pathology at the'Otago Medical School, said that he had conducted a post mortem examination of the body of the deceased, ana he was of the opinion that death was caused by internal haemorrhage, the result of broken ribs lacerating the liver and the right lung. Tests indicted that the deceased had been in a state of intoxication. It appeared that some heavy body had passed over the deceased, as it was not possible that the injuries could have been caused by rough handling when the deceased was being taken to a doctor's surgery. Marcus Randall Barton, a market gardener, of Outram, said that the deceased attended a party at his place on the night of April 27, and at 2.45 the following morning he left on his bicycle to go home. He was in a state of intoxication. Harold Alexander Carmody stated that he drove a car to Middlemarch on April 27 and attended a football match. After the match he and other members of the teams had some drinks and then went to a dance. They were entertained at supper by the Middlemarch team after the dance and witness left Middlemarch in his car at about 1.30 a.m. on April 28 to go home. A stop was made at the Clark’s Junction Hotel, where witness had a beer and a rum. About 3.50 a.m. he dropped three passengers at Outram, and was driving along the Huntly road, about a mile from Berwick, when he saw an object in the middle of the roadway. He swerved to his loft to avoid the object, which appeared to be a cycle, and ran into the ditch. He went back, and found the deceased, who appeared to be injured, lying a few feet away from and to the right of, the cycle. Witness did not run over the deceased or the cycle. Similar evidence was given by Lewis Keith, a mill-hand, of Halfway Bush, and William Lyall Johnston, a farmer, of Maungatua, who were passengers in the car.

Alan Lindsay Robertson, a farmer, of Outrarn, said that he arrived at the scene of the accident by car a few minutes after Carmody, and went to get the police and a doctor. He saw the marks of Carmody’s car, and they were clear of the bicycle and the deceased. Constable E. W, Fibbes, of Outrarn, said that he was called to the scene of the accident at 4.30 a.m. on April 28. and assisted in the removal of the deceased, who was incoherent and could not say what had happened to him. The previous witness, Carmody, was not under the influence of liquor, and there was nothing to indicate that the bicycle had been struck by another vehicle. Detective Sergeant Brown, in evidence, said that the deceased left the witness Barton's house about 2.45 a.m., and was rext seen about 600 yards down the road at approximately 4 a.m. The assumption of the police was that he had fallen off his cycle and while on the road was run over b.v a car. There was nothing on Carmoay’s car to suggest that it had gone over the deceased. The coroner stated that it was apparent that the deceased, while in an intoxicated condition, had come off his cycle, and while he was lying on the road some motor vehicle had passed over his body, causing injuries which resulted in his death. There was no evidence before him that any motor vehicle had passed along the Huntly road between 2.45 a.m. and 4 a.m. on April 28. other than the car driven by Carmody, but both Carmody and Johnston had stated that the car did not run over the deceased. He congratulated the police on the full extent of the inquiries made, but said he could only find that the deceased had died from the Injuries outlined in the medical evidence, arid that those injuries were caused by a motor vehicle passing over the body of the deceased while he was lying in a state of intoxication on the road close to the point where a car driven by Carmody pulled up.