INQUESTS HELD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26781, 26 May 1948, Page 2

INQUESTS HELD

COLLISION WITH BUS ELDERLY MAN’S DEATH The inquest into the death of Edward Walter Sell, aged 74, a bricklayer, who was killed whfen he collided with a Peninsula Motor Service bus in High street on April 12, was concluded yesterday before Mr J. D. Willis, S.M., sitting as coroner. Mr E. J. Anderson appeared for Peninsula Motors and the driver of the bus, Thomas George Henderson, and Sergeant A. G. Beal represented the police. Dr Roland Rodda, assistant lecturer in pathology at the Otago University, who carried out a post-mortem examination on April 12, expressed the opinion that death was due to multiple injuries, chiefly a rupture of the heart and the main blood vessel from it, causing massive internal haemorrhage. Mrs Sarah Eleanor Newton, of Otakou, said she was standing in High street watching the bus turn from Cumberland street into High street. The vehicle was moving at a moderate speed. Witness saw a pedestrian going across High street when the bus had almost completed the turn. The pedestrian was walking towards the Queen's Gardens and it appeared to witness that he walked directly in front of the oncoming bus. Witness considered that the right-hand front wheel of the bus had passed over the deceased. James Alexander Shaw, district vehicle inspector employed by the Government Transport Department, said he had tested the brakes of the bus on the day of the accident. The brakes were slightly defective. Thomas George Henderson, of Harrington Point, the driver of the bus. said he estimated the bus's speed as it turned into High street to be betwen 10 and 12 miles an hour. Witness first saw the deceased about level with the front righthand wheel. There was an approximate distance of five feet between the bus and the deceased when witness first saw him. The deceased then ran forward and simultaneously witness applied the brakes, but was unable to avoid hitting the pedestrian. Witness said it was obvious that the deceased had either not seen his bus or he. had misjudged the distance from the bus. Witness had no chance of avoiding the accident after he saw the deceased. . , The verdict was that the deceased died of injuries, the result of colliding with a bus owned by the Peninsula Motor Service and driven by Thomas George Henderson.