A RECENT FATALITY.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16712, 30 January 1926, Page 5

A RECENT FATALITY.

INQUIRY i AT PALMERSTON NORTH

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., Friday.

■The adjourned enquiry into the circumstances surrounding t'ne fatality at Rangiolu Road Bridge on the night of August 10, whereby Mrs C. H. Withers and her two sons lost ' their lives through, the car in which they were travelling crashing through a picket fence and plunging down a steep bank into the Orcua River, was resumed at the Courthouse this morning. The bodies of the two boys, Leonard Peri, aged live, and Jack Herbert, aged twelve, were found later, but the body of Mrs Withers has not been recovered. Charles Herbert Withers, gave evidence that on the night of the fatality he was returning to Palmcrston by car, accompanied by his wife and children. When approaching the Rangiotu Bridge, travelling at about 15 miles an hour, the headlights picked up the railway bridge, about half a chain from the road bridge. Continuing on in the belief that the first-named structure was the road bridge he suddenly perceived a picket fence in front of the car. He immediately applied the brakes, but was too near the fence to stop the car, and the vehicle plunged over into the river. His wife and boys were in the back seat. He made endeavours to locate them, without success. The next thing he remembered was feeling himself being pulled out of the river. . , The coroner returned a verdict that the two boys were accidentally drowned, the accident being apparently due to an error of judgment on the part of Withers in mistaking the approach of the railway bridge for that of the traffic bridge; further, that at the time there was an element of danger at the locality. It was satisfactory to note from the evidence that steps had been taken to prevent a recurrence of such accidents.