TRACTOR FATALITY NEAR MANGAWEKA; INQUEST ON DRIVER

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 April 1949, Page 8

TRACTOR FATALITY NEAR MANGAWEKA; INQUEST ON DRIVER

TAIHAPE, Last Night (OC).—The inquest on William Gray Hodge, labourer, employed by the Kiwitea County Council, who was killed when a tractor he was driving went over Ihe bank near Mangaweka on March 14 was concluded before the Taihape district coroner, Mr. E. Loader, 'yesterday afternoon.

Colin Peter McDonald, truck driver, employed by the Kiwitea County Council, said inevidence that on March 14 he was operating a road grader on the Mangarere Road about, four miles from Mangaweka The grader was the old type and was drawn by a motor tractor driven by Hodge. About 11.50 a.m. witness got off the grader to roll a cigarette while Hodge turned the tractor and grader on the road.

“I noticed him swing and drive the tractor up to the extreme edge of the road I then looked away, but I heard the engine of the tractor stop and a little later start again. I heard the engine being “revved” up and then heard a crash. On looking round I fourui that the tractor and grader had gone over the bank. The grader broke away from the tractor and was lodged against a tree halfway down the bank. The tractor was about half a chain from the road and past the grader The tractor was upside down and deceased was lying alongside it. I could see he had a broken jaw and he complained of pains in the chest. I informed his father, who was foreman of works. I returned to the scene and with two other men placed deceased on a tarpaulin and carried him up to the road. Deceased was taken in the ambulance to the Taihape Hospital. He had been driving the tractor for three days and I understand he had driven tractors before. I am of the opinion that when deceased stopped the tractor at the edge of the road he put the gear into forward instead of reverse with a result that it went over the bank. The second gear and reverse are close together and there is not much more than half an inch between them.” Returning a verdict of accidental death, the coroner expressed the opinion that Hodge had been too young and inexperienced to drive a tractor.