CORONER’S INQUEST

Southland Times, Issue 19770, 19 February 1923, Page 7

CORONER’S INQUEST

VERDICT OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH. On Saturday morning, before Mr George Cruickshank, S.M., an inquiry was held into the cause of the death of Mrs Elspeth Winton Smith, w’ho died in the Southland Hospital as the result of a fall from a tramcar on Thursday, February 1. Senior-Sergeant Scandrett conducted proceedings. Dr Johnson, Medical Superintendent of the Southland Hospital, said that Mrs Smith was brought to the Hospital suffering from haemorrhage and laceration of the brain. An operation was performed, and it was thought for some days that it might prove successful, but she eventually sank and died on Sunday, February 11. The immediate cause of death was laceration oi the brain, which might have been caused by a heavy fall on the back of the head. Bertha Schroeder said she saw Mrs Smith sitting with two other ladies in the tramcar She suddenly got up and went out on t< the platform. She seemed dazed. Shortly afterwards she heard someone say: “A lac. has fallen off the car.” Hugh A. Wilson said he had been a pc. senger on the tram, and saw deceased >. out on to the platform. No one seemed want to alight when the conductor call', out “Teviot Street.” She seemed excite, and as far as he could see gave no sign, to the conductor that she wanted to align He saw her disappear, but could not s. whether she walked or fell off. The tn* pulled up within about 12 yards, and 1. went back and found deceased lying on L back unconscious. He, with others, took h to Mrs Walker’s house close by. Dr Ritchie Crawford said that he hi, been called to Mrs Walker’s house at aboi 10 o’clock on February 1, and found < ceased sitting on a chair. She was slight dazed and said she had had a fall from tram. The only apparent injury was ave . small scalp wound. She said she was qui l capable of walking home, but he took h there in his car. He saw her again in i Southland Hospital, and agreed with 1 Johnson that an operation was necessai She had never explained in any way he the accident had occurred

Thomas Wilson Walker, tram conduct said that no one had given warning of intention to get off at Teviot street; and he did not stop the car. At the time the accident the car was travelling aL--10 miles an hour. He helped to carry e ceased to Mrs Walker’s house and then ran. up the doctor. John Hamilton Smith, accountant, hu. band of deceased, said that his wife hac mentioned at the time, that she was going to visit some friends in Avenal, and left home at about 6.20 p.m. He did not see her again until midnight, when she was in bed, and apparently all right. Shortly afterwards she started retching, but he thought it nothing serious. She was sleeping when he left her next morning. On returning about mid-day she was still in bed and her manner was strange. Dr Gibson was called :n and ordered her removal to the Hospital. Nothing had been said about the accident, and he (witness) thought his wife had had a stroke. She was slightly deaf owing to a former accident resulting in concussion, and was very absent-minded at times. It was very likely that she did not hear the conductor call “Teviot Street,” and not realising the speed at which the car was travelling, tried to get off. Henry T. W. Denton eaid that he was the deceased’s next-door neighbour, and knew her well. She was slightly deaf, and, he would think, inclined to be excitable and impulsive. He knew of an occasion when ahe had once before been prevented by a passenger from stepping off a car whikrt it was in motion. lan H. R. Smith, son of deceased, said that on the night of the accident, he had returned home between 10 and 10.30 pjn. and found his mother on the back verandah sitting on the doorstep. He asked her if she was ill, and she answered that she had a slight headache, and would go to bed. She never said anything about the accident. It was not until next day that he heard she had fallen from a tramcar. A verdict of accidental death, the result of laceration of the brain caused by a fall, was returned, the Coroner adding that no blame was attachable to anyone, and that the conductor and motorman of the tram were to be commended for their promptitude.