STRUCK BY CAR

Southland Times, Issue 25312, 15 June 1935, Page 8

STRUCK BY CAR

DEATH IN HOSPITAL B SOUTHLAND RESIDENT VERDICT AT INQUEST (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, June 14. The inquest commenced to-day into the death in hospital of Norman Anderson, of Waimatuku, near Invercargill, who was struck by a motor car at the corner of Willis and Willeston Street, Wellington, at about 10.40 p.m. on May 6. Evidence was given by eyewitnesses that the car was travelling at high speed and did not stop. The driver, Patrick Thomas Syron, said there were three others in the car. He approached the intersection at 15 to 20 miles an hour and pulled to the centre of the road to avoid a stationary car. Something struck the windscreen and broke the glass. He pulled at the brake, bitt the person sitting beside him said he thought it was all right. He looked back and could not see anything and continued on up Willis Street. When the sub-inspector of police asked at this stage where he went, counsel for Syron objected to any further questioning. He said the only duty of the Coroner was to ascertain the manner of death. , The Coroner thought, however, that the question where Syron went might have a bearing and the questions continued. Syron said he left the car in College Street, five or ten minutes’ walk from his home. He did not want his people to know that his windscreen was broken. The sub-inspector: But then you did not know you struck anyone. Syron said he knew then. He also said that after the accident one of his passengers said, “You have hit a man, go for your life.” As a result of what he was told, he continued on. Continuing his evidence, Syron said that the next time he saw the car was at the police station. He did not know the car had been found at Houghton Bay. The Sub-Inspector: Have you any idea how it got there? Witness: I don’t wish to answer that. The Sub-Inspector: Why don’t you wish to answer? You must give a reason. “I might incriminate someone else,” replied witness. The Sub-Inspector: That is your reason then —Yes. It is not that you might incriminate yourself in any way. It is that you might implicate others?—Yes. Well you have to answer it now. Mr Stewart: It is a deliberate trap. The Coroner said that witness need not answer the question. After further questioning, witness said he admitted he was driving the car at the time of the accident. Mr Stewart., then said there was nothing else required for the purpose of the inquest. The Coroner: What about sobriety? Mr Stewart said that had nothing to do with it. The tracing of witness’s movements throughout the evening had no bearing on the inquest. The Coroner said he would like to know if witness had been drinking before the accident. If he was sober it might have been purely an accident. The Sub-Inspector said that the object of the inquest was to find out how deceased met his death, and all the surrounding circumstances. Continuing his evidence, Syron said he had three drinks between 5.30 and 6 p.m. To Mr Mazengarb witness said he never saw the body of a man on the bonnet of the car. Mr Mazengarb: Who removed the glass from the car? Witness said he did not wish to answer on the grounds of incrimination. Do you know how the glass was removed from the car?—l don’t wish to answer that. To further questions put by Mr Mazengarb, witness said he did not know Anderson was dead until 5 p.m. the next day. He did not report the accident to the police. Passenger’s Evidence. A passenger in the car, Roy Hamilton Dellow of Island Bay, Company Secretary, said that Syron and he went into town in the car, accompanied byMr and Mrs Taylor. The driver he thought. was Syron with Taylor sitting next to him. Coming into Willis street the car was not travelling ->t more than 20,t0 25 miles an hour. He felt a bump and the windscreen broke. When he lo6ked back the car was past the stationary car at the kerb and he could not see anything else. Sub-Inspector Carroll: Was anything said then or immediately' afterward about what the car struck ? Witness: No, I don’t think so.

Witness added that he remembered someone saying something like “We’ve hit something; it is all right, get away on.” When they arrived at College street, somebody said, “I think we hit a man.” Nothing more, he thought, was said. He himself wanted to get away home.

Detective Broman said that at 2.30 a.m. on the same night he saw blood and fragments of bone on a verandah post and two other posts about 14ft. away were lightly grazed. On the following evening he discovered a car parked at Houghton Bay,' off Queen’s Drive. Syron came to the station on that day and reported that his car had been stolen from Holland street between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. The car’s windscreen was broken. There was a graze on the left hand side and spots of blood on the inside of the glass on the front left hand door. This car was later claimed by Syron. “I am satisfied that the car was travelling through the intersection at an excessive speed and at a comer where one should take extra care,” the Coroner commented. “The evidence of Syron and those with him is not compatible with the weight of evidence. I am satisfied that the car was going at more than 23 miles per hour. It is not quite clear whether deceased was keeping a sharp look out. Scully’s having refrained from attempting to cross the road would almost point to the view that deceased was not looking out on his side.”

The Coroner found that Anderson died, at the public hospital from'injuries received by being struck in Willis street by a car driven by Syron.