WOMAN’S DEATH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 714, 13 July 1929, Page 1

WOMAN’S DEATH

NO CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE STRUCK BY MOTOR-CYCLE j Deciding that there was no criminal negligence on the part of the motor-cyclist by whose machine Catherine Parnell had been knock down, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., coroner, returned a verdict of death through injuries received in a motor accident. The inquest was held this morning. Mrs. Parnell was a widow, aged 68, and was proprietor of a boardinghouse situated at 50 Ponsonby Road. She had been 50 years in New Zealand but was a native of Ireland. Louis Fisher Spitz, driver of the motor-cycle, said this morning that he had been travelling along Karangahape Road at between 20 and 25 miles hour on June 15. He was near the Edinburgh Street intersection tvhen a woman walked out in front of him from behind a car parked by the roadside. Witness sounded his horn, applied his brakes and turned sharp to the right in an endeavour to avoid the pedestrian, but struck her and was himself thrown from his mount, although not injured. The woman was removed to the hospital in an ambulance. "I expected her to stop when I sounded the horn, but she went straight on,” added Spitz. Witness was questioned by Mr. Sullivan for the deceased s family and Mr. Moody for the driver of the cycle. After further evidence had been tailed the coroner returned his verdict adding that, although there was no •riminal negligence, there might be a •ivil liability. Mrs. Parnell died in hospital on ***** 35, ten days after the accident.