GIRL’S DEATH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21647, 7 May 1940, Page 9

GIRL’S DEATH

Pinned Under Dray

Inquest Concluded

The Inquest into the death of Valerie Carson Ferguson, aged 12, who was killed when a dray drawn by a bolting horse overturned near the Borough Council abattoir on April 11, was concluded before the Coroner (Mr H. Morgan) yesterday. The verdict was that the girl died from a broken neck, “such injury being received when a horse attached to a dray into which she had just climbed took fright and bolted. The dray was overturned on top of her.” John Roberts, a driver employed by the Timaru Borough Council, said that on April 11. at 4.30 p.m., he was returning to the Council stables in Eversley Street with a horse and dray. As he was going along Waimataitai Street to the stables, three little girls followed the dray. They asked for a ride, which he refused. When lie reached the entrance to the stable paddocks, he got out to open the gate. After he had taken the horse through and had shut the gate, he was climbing back on to the dray when he saw Valerie Ferguson and another girl climbing into the dray from the rear. He told them to go away, as he had instructions not to allow strangers in the dray. As the girls were getting into the dray Valerie Ferguson called out to another girl some distance away. The noise made by the girls startled the horse, which started to move forward. As a result witness slipped on the shaft of the dray and fell to the ground, the left wheel of the dray passing over his back. He was unable to move owing to the injury, but could see the horse bolting up the hill. He did not see the dray overturn or the girls fall out. Witness added that the horse was r. quiet animal, but evidently got a friglt. when the girls called out. William McKenzie, a labourer, residing at 153 Evans Street, said that he saw Roberts driving to the pound before the accident. Three girls were following the dray, and one, whom he recognised as his niece, he called away. When the dray stopped the other two girls climbed into it. The attention of witness was distracted for a moment, and he next saw the horse galloping in the paddock and running up an incline off the track. He did not see Roberts, but saw the girls in the dray. Audrey Fairbrother was kneeling down and clinging to the right hand side, while Valerie Ferguson was bouncing about in the dray. When the horse was 50 yards up the incline, it swerved sharply away to the left from a fence and went back in the direction of the track at the bottom of the bank. As it was going down the bank, the horse swerved again to the right with a result that the dray turned over. Witness ran to the scene and met the girl Fairbrother on the track. She said she was all right and went home. Arriving at the dray he found that the horse had broken the harness and was standing in front of the stables, while the dray was resting on the right wheel. Valerie Ferguson was lying partly underneath the dray, just in front of the wheel, but no portion of the dray was resting on her body. The girl appeared to be dead. Witness then found Roberts lying against a bank in the paddock near the gate. He appeared to be suffering pair! and could speak only in a whisper. He asked witness t > help the children. Audrey Mary Fairbrother, aged 10, gave evidence of climbing into the dray with Valerie Ferguson as Roberts was closing the gate. When Roberts was climbing into the dray the horse moved forward and he slipped underneath. The horse ran fast up the hill. She did not remember how she got out of the dray.

Henry Thickett, butcher, Stafford Street, said he was driving a van down the bill towards the pound, when ne saw a horse leap out of the shafts of a dray which had overturned. The driver, who was on the ground, told him to get to the dray as fast as he could. The first person he saw on the scene was a small girl lying underneath the dray with the iron rim of a wheel resting firmly across her head. He immediately released the weight off the ijiil. There was a pool of blood by the girl’s head, but she was still breathing. Others soon arrived on the scene Formal evidence was given by Constable C. G. Gadsby. The hearing was adjourned for a period while the evidence of Dr. C. A. Patterson was taken at his residence The doctor said that he was called to the scene of the accident where he am “ ed le * n l ul ’ed girl and found life already extinct. He examined the body later at the hospital and found the neck broken and indications of a fracture at the base of the skull. The right collarbone was fractured and there were heavy abrasions on the chest. In his opinion death was caused by a broken neck.