CAR PLUNGES INTO RIVER

Southland Times, Issue 23182, 24 April 1937, Page 11

CAR PLUNGES INTO RIVER

INQUEST INTO DEATH OF DRIVER (United Press Association) PALMERSTON NORTH, April 23. “I have had no difficulty whatsoever in arriving at a verdict that deceased met his death at Rangiotu by accidental drowning by a car going off the highway into the Oroua River,” said the Coroner, Mr Graham, at the inquest into the death of Arthur Ernest Sexton, aged 57 years, a farmer of Himatangi whose car made a sensational and fatal plunge into the river about midnight on March 23. “The difficulty i to determine how the car left the road. It is impossible to say exactly what happened as it approched the bridge. For some unknown reason the car left the road, careered madly across country and finished upside down in the river.” The Coroner commended the police for their thorough and painstaking efforts. He thought they were wise in desisting from their efforts, until daylight, when all hope of saving life had been abandoned. The police had been very thorough in investigating deceased’s actions during the day and the night of the tragedy. Police evidence given’ by Constable Chapman showed that extensive inquiries were made with a view to ascertaining Sexton’s movements that day but the last person who saw him alive was a Foxton resident after 11 p.m. There was a suggestion that two other persons might have been with deceased, but they had not been traced. The Coroner: Apparently the car must have been travelling at a very high rate of speed to follow the course it did?—Yes. In reply to Inspector Cummings, witness said the road the bridge had a sharp curve at the end of an incline. A probable cause of the accident would be the driver going to sleep and the car getting out of control. Sydney Harris, a labourer, of Foxton, said he was talking to deceased at 11 p.m. on March 23. In the car was a bottle of beer of which the deceased had consumed some. He then left towards Foxton. Deceased was quite sober and fit to drive the car.