THE TUAI FATALITY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16317, 18 April 1927, Page 12

THE TUAI FATALITY

CORONER ’S ENQUIRY. (Special to tho Herald.) WAIROA, this day. An inquest was held at tho Courthouse on Saturday afternoon before -Mr. A. H. Unwin, deputy coroner, and the following jury:—Messrs. A. ,f. Chicken (foreman;, J. \Y. E. Swain, It. Trails and E. Lambert, touching the circumstances under which Airs Lilian Xekiult Plattcn met her death. Dr. Somerville stated i hat the cause of death was a fracture ol’ the bones ot. the neck. He found the body lying on a Mope near the ear and covered by a rug. The deceased’s injuries were compatible with a ear accident.

(diaries Stuart Flatten, husband of lhe_deceaseil. stated he left Gisborne a t [ ;un - 0,1 Friday, and arrived at Maiioa at I p.m., and went straight on towards Waikaranoana, where he intended to spend four days’ holiday. He had had no trouble with the car coming through, and had been driving Inr live years, (lining which time he hud not had a previous accident. When he got to the turn.oft nt Tuai. an accident occurred. He was travelling at the rate of about 18 miles an hour on a slight up-grade, when the front right wheel struck a boulder at the side of Ihe road, which in itself would not have been sufficient to turn the ear over, but on the other side of the boulder was a deep watenvorn channel, which made it physically impossible to get the car back on the road. He applied the brakes, but was too kite, and the car tilted over slowly, finally turning over three times, the last turn proving fatal t,o Ales Flatten, her head and neck being caught between the hood and the ground, anil she appeared to have been hall thrown through the window as ihe ear finished its lasi turn. Witness was al the wheel and hung on. and although 1 brown about ho was not thrown out. AYhen the car started to turn Airs Plattcn was thrown against, him. ami if not so thrown the balance of the car would have been maintained, ami no accident would have resulted. He could not account how tho accident happened. He tried to release Mrs Flatten by himself. Einallv lie did so with the assistance of Mr. Samson, with a jack from a following car, and some Maoris. It look about five minutes (o release (lie deceased, and he I hen got in touch with a doctor and Hie police. Witness was considerably bruised and knocked about,, his left shoulder bone being split.

-Tames Ross Samson, an accountant, of Gisborne, stated that he was accompanying Mr. Plattcn on tho trip to the lake, and was travelling about 75 yards behind him in another car immediately before the accident. On the run from Gisborne no trouble occurred. He knew Air. Flatten as a good and careful driver,.and had boon mi previous motor trips with him. Ho remembered getting to Time turn-off, and saw Mr. Platten’s right front wheel strike n boulder. It appeared to hit the boulder, which gave way, putting the wheel off the road. The ear then seemed to slide over and balanced for some' time before finally rolling over sideways. Witness immediately stopped and went to Airs Flatten’s assistance, and found Mrs Flatten underneath tho ear. Mr. Flatten seemed all right at the time, and witness went back to his car for a jack, and with the help of Mr. Flatten and a native they got the car up sufficiently to get Mrs Flatten out. Tho way the car balanced on the side of the road showed that very little would have stopped if from going over. The deceased never moved whim the car was lifted. Her head was jambed between the steel part of the hood and the ground, the body being inside. He knew the car rolled over completely three times. Sergeant Wade stated that in resnnnse to a telephone message on Friday ho went to Time turn-off with Constable Tucker. The car had then been righted, but was damaged, most of rlio windows being broken. Ho thought, that if Mrs Flatten had not been thrown against the window she would not have been killed. Tho condition of the road was good on the surface, and was not such as would tend to an accident. There were a number of boulders on the edge of the bank and the marks of the car could be seen. The tendency, in striking the boulder would bo to make the front wheel skid towards the gully. The jiyjv returned a verdict that the deceased, Lilian Iveziali Flatten met; her death, accidentally at Time, Waiknrcmoana road, on April 35, 1027, from a fracture of the bones of Hie neck duo to a motor accident.

The coroner, at the request of the foreman, tendered liis sympathy and that of tho jury at the unfortunate ending to a holiday.