CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 4041, 25 August 1931, Page 33

CASUALTIES.

CAR STRIKES POLE. AUCKLAND, August 18. Three persons were seriously injured when a closed motor car in which they were travelling collided violently with a telegraph pole at the junction of Hobson and Fanshawe streets shortly after midnight. The injured, who were admitted to the Auckland Hospital, are:—Miss Harriet Fenton, compound fracture of the left leg and cuts on head; Florencio Segura, an officer of the Chilean training ship General Baquedano, injuries to head; and James Rainey, injuries to head and left knee. Following the accident Miss Fenton was unconscious, but recovered before the arrival of the hospital ambulance.

The driver, Rainey, was in the front seat, and Miss Fenton and the Chilean officer were in the back seat. The car. which was travelling down Hobson street, turned to the right at the junction ami skidded into the pole with a terrific impact. Rainey and Miss Fenton were thrown forward violently against the windscreen. Miss Fenton being hurled across the back of the front seat. All the windows in the vehicle except two were splintered, and broken glass flew iq all directions, inflicting cuts on the occupants. The car, a Dodge sedan, was completely wrecked.

RAILWAY CLERK KILLED. AUCKLAND. August 18. Caught between two goods trucks while engaged in shunting operations at Te Kauwhata, a railway clerk named EricReid Grindley, aged about 29, was killed instantaneously to-night. He suffered terrible injuries to the head and body. Grindley, who was the officer in charge of the station for the evening, was engaged in attaching additional trucks to a goods train which leaves Frankton Junction at 3 p.m. for Mercer and Auek land. When the accident occurred he was struck by the buffers of the trucks at the near end of the two portions of the train. The force of the impact was sufficient to cause the derailment of the two colliding trucks. Grindley, whose parents reside in Dunedin, was a married man, but had no family. He had been stationed at Te Kauwhata for about four years. The derailment of the trucks resulted in some delay, but the train later continued its journey to Auckland.

WOMAN DROWNED IN RIVER. WAIROA. August 19.

While whitebaiting, Mrs Munro, aged 46 years, was drowned this morning in the Wairoa River near Frasertown. The body was recovered.

PEDESTRIAN FATALLY INJURED INVERCARGILL, August 20.

Dennis Ryan, a single man, of Inver cargill. was knocked down by a car on the North road this evening, and received injuries to the head which subsequently proved fatal. It is stated that he, in company with another man, was walking along the road, wheeling a bicycle when he was overtaken by a motorist. An ambulance was called, but Ryan'dicd before he reached the hospital.

BODY FOUND IN HARBOUR. WELLINGTON, August 21.

Missing from his lodgings at Kilbirnie since July 20. the body of Gilbert Davy Bettger, a middle-aged man. was taken from harbour about half a mile on the Petone side of Ngahauranga to-day. The deceased was formerly a clerk in the railway land office. It is reported that prior to his disappearance he had been depressed on account of his wife’s death two years ago. but had given no indication of suicidal tendencies. He is survived bv a daughter who lives in Auckland.

A CHILD POISONED. CHRISTCHURCH, August 21

After drinking from a bottle labelled “ ant and woodlice death ” on Wednesday. Allen Edward Whiteombe. aged two years, died in the Christchurch Hospital yesterday. At the inquest last evening the coroner returned a verdict that death was due to heart failure, following on the consumption of some narcotic poison, which the child had accidentally drunk. “It will not affect the verdict, but it is necessary in the interests of the public,” said the coroner when directing that a sample of the liquid should be analysed. MOTOR COLLISION. WELLINGTON, August 22. Mr and Mrs Abbott, of Five Beach street. Petone. were driving home last night with their children when their car was struck in the rear by another car on Thorndon quay. The car capsized, and the occupants were all more or less injured. Mrs Abbott was taken to the hospital with injuries to her leg. The other car continued without stopping. and the police are making inquiries.

A SCHOOLBOY’S DEATH. CHRISTCHURCH, August 22

An inquest on Lawrence Melville Savill, a schoolboy, who died in the hospital following a fall while playing with other boys at the Harewood School on Monday, was adjourned. The father stated that the boy fell on the back of his head, and later complained of pains.

BOY DIES FROM INJURIES. CHRISTCHURCH, August 22. Alan Jenkins, aged 15, of Port Levy, died in hospital to-day as the result of injuries received when a lorry driven by his father struck a telegraph pole yesterday evening.

RUN OVER BY TRAIN. CHRISTCHURCH, August 23. Charles Arthur Booker, aged 44, an unemployed law clerk, who had been living in a hut at Stewart’s Gully, on the south bank of the Waimakariri River, was run over and killed last evening by a train proceeding to Christchurch from Kaiapoi.

The driver stated that half a mile past Kaiapoi he noticed a dark object on the rails, but -was unable to stop before striking it. Several carriages passed over.the body before the train was brought to a standstill. KILLED BY WIRE ROPE. Advice received by the superintendent of police states that David M’Colgan, a bushman. was accidentally killed through being struck by a wire rope when working at Tawanui. in the Catlins district, on Friday. He was 32 years of age, and •single. INJURIES TO HEAD. John Robinson, aged 50 years, was admitted to the Hospital on Saturday afternoon suffering from injuries to his head and face. He was riding a bicycle when he collided with a motor car in Bay View road. The injured man resides at 51 Douglas street. St. Kilda. A FRACTURED LEG. hen riding a motor cycle through Allanton on Saturday, Allan Albert Holden, aged 22 years, collided with a motor car. and received a compound fracture of the left leg and injuries to his face and head. He was brought to Dunedin and admitted to the Hospital for treatment. The injured man resides at Waitepeka. WOMAN’S SAD END.

The coroner (Mr J. R. Bartholomew) held an inquiry at the Dunedin Hospital last week into the circumstances of the death of Helen Fitzgerald Hore. a married woman, aged 31 years, who died at the institution on August 16. John Isaac Hore. husband of the de eeased, said he was a railway employee and had been working at Bushey. He returned to his home on his motor cycle for the week-ends. He left his home at Macandrew Bay on August 10, and returned on August 15. There were two children, aged two years and four years. Witness said he usually sounded the horn of his machine outside the house when he arrived home, and the children came out to meet him. On this occasion he was surprised that no one came out, and he went to the house and found it locked up He noticed some bread at the door and also some newspapers. The oldest paper was dated Thursday. Witness said he thought his wife had gone to Dunedin to see friends, and he mounted his motor cycle and went to Roslyn, but his wife's friend, who resided there, had not seen her. He then went to another friend’s place, and she told him she had stayed at his wife s place on the Tuesday night, and had left on the Wednesday morning. She had not seen her since. Witness said he returned to Macandrew Bay and went to the Post Office to see if any letters were there for him, but there were none. He went back to bis home again and tried to unfasten the catch on the window, when he heard the baby cry, “ Mum.” He broke tnrough the pane in the window and rushed into the house. He found his wife in bed unconscious and the children in a famished state. He rang for his doctor ami also for the ambulance. The doctor was engaged and the ambulance took his wife to the Dunedin Hospital. His wife had been subject to epileptic fits since she was nine years of age. She had visited her doctor two weeks previously. She was pregnant, and the doctor had told her that she must be careful, as she had womb trouble. She had made arrangements to enter St. Helens Hospital. His wife was of a quiet retiring nature.

1 he coroner adjourned the inquest to a late to be fixed later.