ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

Southland Times, Issue 21604, 16 January 1932, Page 5

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

CHILD'S DEATH FROM BURNS. (Per United Press Association.) Hastings, January 15. An inquest into the death of Bryan Hugh McCann, aged 21 years, who died in the Royston Hospital on Wednesday as the result, of burns received when his nightdress caught on fire, was held at Hastings this morning. Deceased was the son of Mr James McCann, a farmer of Pakowhai, who gave evidence that, at 7 a.m. on the day of the fatality he. left the house to go to the milking shed two chains distant. His wife followed 20 minutes later, leaving the child playing at the back door. Three minutes afterwards the child came running to the shed with his flannelette nightdress alight. Witness immediately extinguished the flames and hurried the child to hospital. By some means the child had obtained a box of wax matches from a ledge above the bed in which his parents slept. According to the medical evidence the case was hopeless from the beginning. The jury returned a verdict that death was accidental, no blame being attachable to the parents. DEATH FROM ELECTRIC SHOCK. Dunedin, January 15. At the adjourned inquest on Russell Albert. Howes, aged 19, the Coroner returned a verdict of cardiac failure caused by an electric shock. He emphasized the danger of using portable electric lights in bathrooms or places where they were liable to come in contact with metal. The evidence had shown that deceased was shaving in a bath and using a portable light which was defective in its insulation so that touching a metal part would cause a shock that would be intensified if the hand were wet. Moreover the deceased had a weak heart as the result of rheumatic fever. INQUEST CONCLUDED. Dunedin, Janusry 15. The inquest concluded to-day on Ada Teresa Berry, who was killed in a motor accident near Allanton on December 16. David Hannah, sideshow manager, driver of the car, stated that shortly before the accident he ran into a swarm of bees, some of which entered the car. While he was trying to close the windscreen, the car ran off the road and struck a telegraph post. He remembered little else tHI he regained consciousness in the hospital. A verdict was returned that deceased died from head injuries as the result of an accident. The coroner added that no blame was attachable to the driver.