YOUTH MET DEATH WHEN ON HOLIDAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19270, 6 January 1931, Page 14

YOUTH MET DEATH WHEN ON HOLIDAY.

PARENTS SAW FATAL SMASH AT TIMARU.

The unfortunate story of an eighteen-year-old youth who met his death within sight of his parents while on holiday was unfolded at the Coroner’s inquiry yesterday at Timaru into the cir : cumstances surrounding the death of Norman Herbert Carr, a mechanic, of 131 River Road, Christchurch. Carr was riding a motor-cycle along King Street, Timaru, on the afternoon of December 31, and collided with a car at the intersection of King, William and Edward Streets. The car, driven by Patrick Vincent Mangos, aged twenty, farm labourer, employed by Joseph Patrick M’Quilkin, of Eiffelton, was proceeding from Edward Street across King Street into William Street. Carr hit the front door of the car with considerable force and was knocked unconscious, sustaining a fractured skull, fractured left arm and other injuries. He was admitted to Timaru Hospital about 3 p.m. and succumbed at 2.30 a.m. on New Year’s Day without recovering consciousness. The motor-cycle was lent him by Frank William Pankhurst, tailor, of Christchurch. Carr’s parents were only some 150 yards from the scene of the accident when it occurred. A verdict was returned by the Coroner, Mr C. R. Orr Walker, to the effect that deceased died on January 1 from cerebral laceration of the brain as the result of a collision between a cycle ridden by him and a car driven by Mangos. Mangos was represented by Mr F. J. Rolleston and deceased’s relatives by Mr L. G. Cameron. Senior-Sergeant I. 11. Mathieson conducted the inquiry. Deceased’s father, Alfred James Carr, bootmaker, of 131 River Road, Christchurch, stated that at 2 p.m. on the day of the accident he saw his son and he was then in good health. He had good eyesight and hearing. He was perfectly sober and to witness’s knowledge, never drank. He was a motor mechanic and a good motor driver; he was, in fact, considered exceptionally good. He had borrowed the cycle from a friend, and witness saw him come up the hill, strike the car and fall. Vincent Francis Roberts, labourer, employed at an establishment ten yards from the scene of the accident, said that he saw Carr coming up JCing Street towards the intersection of William and Edward Streets. There was n<- other traffic on the road at the time and the motor-cyclist came up to the intersection doing approximately thirty to thirty-five miles an hour. The car came across from Edward Street and on its right side. The car was doing fifteen to eighteen miles an hour. The driver of the car, Patrick Vincent Mangos, stated that on the afternoon of December 31 he was driving a car in Edward Street towards King Street intersection. He looked to the right and saw nothing approaching. When a little over the centre of the intersection he had another look to the right and saw the motor-cycle ten yards away. lie had then no chance of avoiding it. Just as the cycle hit the car, he applied the brakes, pulling up in a foot or two. He let it go on for three or four yards after the impact. lie had been driving for from five to six years.

Further evidence was given by Constable Anderson and by John Sampson Gibb Forrest, mechanic, who said that he carried out repairs to Mangos’s car on Christmas Eve, including the fixing of the brakes. He tested them and found them quite sound.