ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9253, 4 June 1908, Page 1

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

INQUEST. An inquest was held at the Hospital yesterday afternoon, before Mr H. "VV-. ' Bishop, District Coroner, and a jury of six, regarding the death of Robert Hughes. The coroner said that deceased had been driving along Moorhous© Avenue on Saturday night, while under the influence of liquor, and had collided with a tramway pole. ' His trap had been smashed, and deceased himself rendered unconscious. He had recovered consciousness, however, and after being attended in the hospital had been removed to the Police Station, it being thought that his injuries were slight, and that he was suffering mainly from j the effects of drink. At the Police J Station .he had been attended by Dr ! Symes, and when it was found that his injuries were serious he had been taken to the Hospital, where he had died. Harold Cousins, cab-driver, stated that he had been driving on Moorhouse Avenuo soon after 10.30 p.m. on Saturday, and had heard a vehicle coming up last behind him. Witness got out of the way, and the vehicle, a gig driven by deceased, ran into the next tramway pole. • Deceased was leaning down in the gig, and the horse seemed to be going as it pleased. Deceased was evidently drunk. He went right against the pole, and the gig was smashed, deceased falling out on to his • head. Witness wont to. the man, and , found him unconscious, but he had recovered consciousness before starting for the Hospital. Dr B. A. Shaw, assistant house-sur-geon at the Hospital, stated that deceased had been taken* to the Hospital on Saturday night by a policeman. The man had walked into the outpatients' department and witness had i examined him. The only injury witness found was a cut on the left ear. The man was quite conscious, and after witness had stitched up the wound he seemed fit to be removed. The -man was badly under the influence of liquor. Witness was not told that he had been unconscious. The man had been readmitted on Sunday moraine, when he

had showed signs of concussion of the brain. Witness would not have sent the man away in the first place had he known that he had heen unconscious. Dr Thomas Leslie Crooke, house surgeon at the Hospital, gave similar evidence. Death, he said, had been due to extensive hemorrhage on the brain. There had been no external indications of the injury, and the man's condition would not have been improved had he been kept in the Hospital when first brought there. Constable Jackson stated he had arrived at the scene of the accident shortly after it occurred, and had found deceased conscious. He had taken the man to the Hospital in a cab. Deceased had been drunk, but h?d given his name and address intelligibly.. He had been attended at the Hospital, and witness had then taken him to the Police Station, where he : had been put to bed. There had been I a bottle of whisky in the gig. [ The jury found that death had kpen ■ cine to injuries accidentally received by , dp?eased while in a state of intoxication. _____________