INQUEST ON INFANT

Chronicle (Levin), 25 November 1946, Page 4

INQUEST ON INFANT

FATAL CAR ACCIDENT The inquest concerning thedeath of the jpfant Jill Pamela Downes who was killed on Augusi 22 at Whirokino as a result of a car running off the road, was coiicltlded in Levin last Friday before Mr. J. S. Moir, district coroner. The evidence of Constable A. T. Kelk was given, in that he proceeded to Whirokino on August 22, 1 arriving at 5.30 p.m. He'found that a motor-ear being driven along the main highway towards Levin by Patrick Henry Golding, had failed to negotiate a right-hand bend, had left the road, travelled a distance of 174 feet, crashed through a wire fence and finally come to rest in a paddock at a distance of 168 feet. It had overturned and the child was thrown around in the car and out' of the open window on the lefthand sicle. The child was found ' dead lying near the fence. !

Dr. L. Bieder, of Foxton, stated that death had been instantaneous, and _was caused from a severn crushing of the head, with a subsequent fraeture of the neck and cranial haemorrliage. The right upper arm and thigh were " also fractured. The dpctor considered that these injuries were causeci inside the car, and not when thr> child was thrown out on to the ground. As a result of enquiries, the driver of the car, Patrick Heniy Golding was charged with negligent driving causing the death of the infant. He stood trial at the Supreme Court in Palmerston North on October 25 and 26, before , Mr. Justice Cornish, and was acquitted of the charge. The coroner brought in the verdict that the deceased child died on A.ugust 22, 1946, on the Le'viil- i Foxton highway, from injuries ' leceived as a result of being thrown about and from a car driven ov ! Patrick Henry Golding.