THE LATE COLONEL McCREDIE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14848, 27 February 1919, Page 5

THE LATE COLONEL McCREDIE

DETAILS OF ACCIDENT. NO BLAME ATTACHABLE TO ANYONE. , Mr. J. L. Bow-en arrived m Gisborno about 4. p.m. .yesterday { with the £ body of the Jate Colonel i'McCi'ediej and: to" a reporter.! he gave ,particulaJ*s/"of ytho inquest, held 'at : Morere : before; Mr. Steady J.P., on- (* Wednesday. Mr.- X. B. Crombie was foreman* of the jury, the otliers . being : •*" Messrs F. Vaugban, R. Baty, J.'Blaclv. J...M. TayJ lor, and S. Synies. ••. Tlie evidence was on tlie following -lines: <^ Dr. Hall wright* testified that .he had 'examined * the body and .had . found •• no Marks. Deatfy, in' his opinion, w,asf due 'to shock. *J It was. probable _ that '.de^ ceased's heart was., not m. good.- condi\tion..? Ha' had not conducted' a post mortem. " •• ■»■.

,-#Mr..j j. L. -Bowen, the driver of the car, . explained that. * when he was.; driving round *-ari ■ "ejbow" -iti T the road about ''2-.^. miles from*. Nuli^a^-heisa}.; the-'heads^of horses'toft the. waggon i.te^jn only a 'few .yards^distant. V The?wagg6n was just coming .ovei*^ a narrow culvert and the horses had begun to negotiate the rise. At once the native driver of thc waggon (which was drawn by six horses) drew the leaders into the bank and he (witness) put on the brake hard, and to escape the, horses drew over to! the outside. Both vehicles came'' to a standstill,' and if his brake had held no mishap would have occurred. But after momentarily . pausing a few. feet from the bank, the car suddenly went on and toppled over the bank, a distance . of from eight to ten feet, turning a complete somersault and pinning all tho occupants underneath. Miss Gower quickly crrawled out, and he (witness) had difficulty m extricating himself, as he found himself -with the wheel-rod between his legs. Mr. Gower was m a still more serious plight,.J_eing under the doors of the car, and when, with the aid of the driver of the waggon, he was released, he was suffering, severely from shock. Colonel McCredie,* it was found, was pinned down with a portion of the hood resting across his chest, and life was extinct.

Mr. Gower, m his evidence, said tliat tho car came upon the driver of the waggon unawares, and m all the circumstances the mishap was unavoidable. Rahu. Pomana (the driver of the waggon) said that when lie heard the car he pulled up...- • At- the -time, the -waggon' was about on -the centre , of -the road. He thouglit that Mr. Bowen might get past, and pulled • his horses into the bank tp enable him to do so. The car stopped, and then tbe next moment it was oyer the bank. He did all he could to assist iv freeing the party. Asked if the car was travelling at a high speed, witness replied' m the negative, and added that it was a heavy 1 - car, and,; seeing that it was going downhill, it would take a lot to pull it up. Mr. Fred Lowe, motor expert, said he had inspected the spot. It was a very bad corner;- and a very difficult place to see vehicles coming "m- tlie opposite direction. The car was a Hudson, and had been subjected to considerable wear. The jar m applying th e brake so promptly m such' a position "\ had stripped a rod, and consequently the brake had eventually failed to act. Apparently the brake had only held for a fraction of a second.

Tlie jury, whioh had inspected the locality, returned a verdict that death,, was due to failure of the heart's action^ and that m connection with the accident no blame was attachable to anyone.

Referring to the accident, Mr Bowen stated that the car fell slowly over into a sort of narrow ravine and landed upside-, down. A . peculiar fact about the accident was that neither of the, headlight glasses was broken, and little damage was done to the car beyond a broken windscreen and damage of a minor, nature. 'Asked' hbw 'he. e^ric^e'd , him^, self, he said: "I do not knerw how long after it was, but" Mis? Cower got* herself free and called to me. I , was ;over . the wheel with the wheeli'od between my legs, the spokes of tbe' wheel having been broken. Although it hardly sounds feasible I .partly, lifted the car with the leverage of . my. back, and released my back, , and .wa'sj scon free:. I immediately went .round and saw. Mi* Go wer lying under tho dooi* ofthe back soa,ft v . with the upholstered portion on his chest. Blood was commencing to coze from his nose and eyes, so with the assistance of , Misp Go wer and the native who drove the' waggon-we released himColanel McCredie ; was lying with the hood across his chest, and he appeared to me to be dead before ever we com-, menced to release him. The Bcene of the accident was ai nasty bend ; had the edge of the road been hard I might havo been able to have swung 1 the car back intei the road again, but the wheels j skidded m the loose surface' of the iroad." '• /• •