MOTOR FATALITY

Southland Times, Issue 22013, 12 May 1933, Page 8

MOTOR FATALITY

ISLAND BAY TRAGEDY LOSS OF FOUR LIVES FINDING AT INQUEST (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, May 11. The opinion that the death of the four victims of the . tragic accident which occurred, at midnight on April 1, when a car plunged over a 40-foot bank was due to the driver s lack of skill and experience of handling a car was expressed by the Coroner, Mr E. Gilbertson, when delivering his verdict of the inquest to-day. The victims were Olga Beryl Bardebes, Ernest Joseph Dickson, James Henry Wood and his wife, Margaret Gilmour Wood. Reviewing the evidence, the Coroner said there was a sharp conflict as to the understanding that had been come to as to the driving of the car and the Coroner, after a review of the evidence, said he had no doubt that Hooker decided not to wait for the return of Fitzgerald or Hoare, and intentionally drove the car away. The car moved down hill and successfully negotiated a right angle turn to the right which occurs 100 yards after the starting point, then gathering momentum it failed to negotiate a hair pin bend to the left 37 yards beyond the first turn. When it was realized the car was travelling dangerously Dickson leaned over from the back seat to try and help with the brake, and one of the ladies called to Hooker to be careful and he replied: “I can’t hold it.” The car went straight on at the hairpin bend plunged over the 40-foot bank to the road below, turning a complete somersault and landing on the hood upside down and back to front. The road at the point where the car plunged over showed two skid marks measuring twelve feet showing the wheels had been locked that distance on the descent by the operation of one or other .of the brakes. Hooker is a young man 22 years old. His experience in driving is very limited as he has never driven a car alone without a competent companion beside him and he has not and never has been a holder of a driving license. In the Coroner’s view to handle for the first time at night on this dangerous road a car such as this one with its unusual left-hand drive and unfamiliar position of the clutch, foot and hand brakes, accelerator, and other controls and its indifferent braking would have proved a sufficiently awkward task for a seasoned driver. For Hooker, relatively unfamiliar as he was with the handling of cars, to have undertaken it, greatly increased the danger and the death therefore of the four people was, in the Coroner’s opinion, due. to the driver’s lack of skill and experience in the handling of a car.