INQUEST ON TWO WHO WERE FATALLY HURT IN BUS ACCIDENT

Wanganui Chronicle, 18 February 1949, Page 6

INQUEST ON TWO WHO WERE FATALLY HURT IN BUS ACCIDENT

WESTPORT. Last Night (PA).— Lengthy evidence was chlled from some victims of the 28 in the bus accident on the Karamea Road on November 27. motor mechanics, the driver of the vehicle and others, when the inquest on two persons who died as a result of injuries received on that day, Mrs. Dorothy Petrie, a married woman, and Mr. Alfred Nuttall, was resumed at Westport today before Mr. C. H. Thomas, Justice of the Peace, acting as coroner. Mr. M. B. Scully appeared for the relatives of the deceased, and Mr. H. A. F. Maitland, Crown Solicitor, for the Railways Department, whose Road Services bus was involved in the accident.

The verdict in both cases was that the deceased died from injuries caused by an accident to a bus driven by John Samuel Kelly.

The coroner said he hail taken notice of the evidence given by the occupants of the bus, which indicated that the accident had certainly not been caused by speeding. He considered it his duty, however, to add something to the verdict which might be of some service to the travelling public, in that he would recommend that public vehicles carrying passengers, especially in the Bullet district, where roads are difficult, should have their springs removed at definite intervals after they have done a certain mileage, for the springs, “U” bolts and other parts to be examined. Where such parts are liable to the effects of water, cracks or crystallisation, it was essential that they should be inspected regularly. Mr. Thomas said that all three mecha cs, when giving evidence, had been definite that such defects could not be found by ordinary examination. Kelly, the driver of the bus, single, aged 22 years, of Granity, said in evidence that he had beer, employed in that capacity by the Railways Department since June, 1947, and since then had been over all routes in the district. On the day of the accident he had 28 people, including himself, travelling to Karamea. The weather was good and the visibility clear. The bus did not give any trouble on the journey. Witness estimated the speed, after running down the straight from Taffy town Hill, at between 25 to 30 miles an hour, that being on a slight decline. Half way along the straight he felt a bit of a bump in the steering and the bus veered to the left. He went to give the bus everything to the right and it would not answer.

“As I pulled to the right I applied the brakes, but the steering failed to respond and the bus went off the road and almost immediately went over a severe bump,” he said. “I think that this may have knocked my foot from the brake, as the vehicle did not show any sign of pulling up. He added that the bump occurred after he had passed a pot hole. He called out to the passengers and the next thing he hit the bank.