ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

Southland Times, Issue 21101, 5 June 1930, Page 6

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

A NARROW ESCAPE. (Per United Press Association.) Christchurch, June 4. Five people, the occupants of a motor truck, had a narrow escape from serious injury, if not death, when the truck overturned, on the Lake Coleridge road yesterday. Two of the occupants, Miss E. Chinney and Frank Keech, were taken to Christchurch Hospital suffering from injuries and shock. Had the truck rolled a few feet further it would have toppled over a 300 foot bank. • ACCIDENTAL DEATH. Palmerston North, June 4. A formal verdict that deceased died from head injuries accidentally received on May 19, was returned by the coroner at the inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of William Stafford Anderson, aged 38, an engineer of Canada, who was killed when the car he was driving failed to take a turning at the Taonui railway crossing. When he missed the intersection at Taonui he jammed on the brakes and the car capsized, deceased being fatally injured. f MOTOR CYCLIST’S DEATH. Palmerston North, June 4. The inquest concluded to-day concerning the death of Emil Brandeis, who died from injuries received when his motor cycle collided with a service car driven by W. J. Nicholson on the Foxton-Sanson road. The coroner returned a verdict of death from shock, associated with an internal haemorrhage as the result of a collision, adding that it was a pure accident, no blame being attachable either to the service car driver or the motor cyclist. ENGINEER FOUND DEAD. Gisborne, June 4. John Alexander McDonald, aged 54, was found dead this morning from a gunshot wound in the head. He was formerly the Gisborne Borough and the Harbour Board engineer and prior to coming to Gisborne in 1913 had held important engineering posts in New South Wales, West Australia and South Africa. Inquest Held. At the inquest on the body of John Alexander McDonald, a retired borough and harbour engineer who was found this morning with a bullet wound in the head, evidence was given that deceased was very depressed through ill-health, and was suffering acutely. On a pedestal at the bedside a constable found a note from deceased, written to his wife, asking her to forgive him; he could not stand the pain any longer. The Coroner returned a verdict that death was due to laceration of the brain caused by a bullet wound self-inflicted while in a state of acute mental depression.