MOTOR FATALITY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19178, 8 December 1927, Page 6

MOTOR FATALITY.

CORONER'S FINDING.

The adjourned inquest into the death of Mrs Fanny Shepherd, killed in a motor-car accident on the Main North road at Southbrook on November 20th, was concluded at Bangiora yesterday, before Mr E. D. Mosley, Coroner. James Olliver Rutherford, Baid he saw a Ford car come otit of a side street, and turn on to the main road. The driver, to avoid a cyclist, turned to the right, then to the left, and the car then seemed to lock and turn over. He saw a woman shot through the windscreen into the drain, and the car came to rest on top of her. Help came and the car was lifted. A boy was lifted out and then the woman, a doctor was sent for, also the ambulance, and both the-woman and the boy w.ere taken to the hospital. When he first saw the car it was travelling at an ordinary rate of speed. Dr. McPhail said he saw the patient just outside the Blocklehurst Hospital. She had been dead a few minutes. In his opinion the cause of death was hemorrhage and shock, caused through a fractured skull, external injuries, and fractured ribs.

Edwin Melroy Shepherd said he was driving his' motor-car through the Southbrook township. His mother was the only passenger. When passing Withers ' store, a cyclist was in front of him, so he swerved to the right to pass him. There was considerable loose shingle on the road. The car was going across into the drain and a telegraph pole. He turned the_ car sharply and did not remember anything further. He received a blow on tho head and a sprained shoulder. He was taken to Blocklehurst and then to Christchurch Hospital. He purchased the car two months ago, solely to tako his mother out. ;

The Coroner's verdict was that Mrs Shepherd died on the public road near Southbrook on November 20th, death being due to haemorrhage and shock following fracture of the skull, external injuries to the head, and fractured ribs, due to a Ford motor-car, which her son was driving, overturning in some loose shingle into a drain, and the car coming to rest with the gear-case pressing on her body.

The Coroner said the people of Rangiora would sympathise with the young man in the death of his mother. He also wished to convey his personal sympathy to the family.