MOTOR COLLISION

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 44, 21 February 1930, Page 11

MOTOR COLLISION

TWO CAES ON A BEND

ELDERLY LADY'S DEATH

Evidence was heard at tho inquest yesterday afternoon on Mariannie Carter, aged 71, whoso death occurred, in the Wellington Hospital on 30th January, eight days after a collision on the Happy Valley road between her son's motor-car, in which she was a passenger, and another motor-car driven by Vincent E. G. Keegan. After hearing the witnesses, tho Coroner (Mr. T. B. M'Neil, S.M.) said ho. wished to see the bend on the road where the accident took place before delivering a verdict, and tho inquest was adjourned until this morning.

The Coroner's finding this morning was that the deceased died from hypostatie pneumonia and heart' failure, following injuries received by her in a motor-car collision between two cars driven by Vincent Keegan and Walter B. Carter respectively. Mr. M'Neil said he visited the scene of tho accident when it was dark last night in company with Constable Hammond and another police officer. From the approximate point of impact and , standing in the middle of tho gravelled road, he could see plainly a torchlight come into view round the bend from the Brooklyn end (Carter's course) 41 yards from the point of impact, and he could also see plainly a torchlight come into view round the bend while ho stood in tho centre of the gravelled road seventy yards on the Island Bay side of the point of impact, 121 yards away. Therefore, in his opinion, tho driver of each car should have been able to see the lights of the other's car sooner than their evidence showed they did.

Mr. H. F. O'Leary appeared for Keegan; Mr. E, H. Boys for Lawrence Mouat, tho owner of the car driven by ■-Keegan; and Mr. W. E. Leicester for the driver of the other motor-ear, Walter B. Carter. Senior-sergeant Ward conducted the inquiry ior the police.

Dr. E. M. Campbell, a'house surgeon at the Wellington Hospital; said that the deceased died of heart failure and shock following the injuries received in the accident. Mrs. Carter also showed some signs' of contusion of the brain. The injuries were only a contributary cause of death. To Mr. Leicester, Dr. Campbell said that, the heart failure was accelerated by pneumonia as a result .of the accident. . "Dazz-mng headlights.? »\ Vincent Edward. Gladstone Keegan, a motor-driver, gave evidence that on the night of 22nd January last, about 10 o'clock, he was driving a motor-car along the Happy Valley, road towards Brooklyn. The first he saw of Mr. Carter's car was the reflection of the headlights. The two cars were approach: ing a bend. Witness was driving between 15 and 20 miles an hour, and. he thought he would "give the other ear the corner first." When Mr. Carter's car. came on to the corner its lights were so dazzling that witness could not see, so he thought the best thing to do was to stop. However, the cars collided. The right-hand front portion of witness's car was strucki He was on the left-hand side of tho road both before and at the time of the collision. Mr. Carter's car was .in the middle of tho road. After the collision tho cars had not been moved, when Inspector Walker took measurements. In answer to Mr. O'Leary, witness said that from what ho could see there was ample room, for 'Mi. Carter to have taken, the .'corner on his 'correct ( side; of the road. Replying to Mr. Leicester, witness said he took the motor-car out to test it, and subsequently he picked up three passengers. Mr. Carter appeared to come round the bend at a speed witness estimated at between 25. and 30 miles an hour. He did not see how Mr. Carter could have been dazzled by witness's lights because of the nature of the bend. '" ■ v CONSTABLE'S MEASUREMENTS.; Constable W, S. Hammond said the width of the road at the point of impact was 20 feet. The left-hand wheels of Keegan's car were sft from the left edge of the road, and the righthand wheels of\Carter's ear were,7ft from Carter's right-hand edge of the road, so that from those measurements Carter's car was on the wroiv£ side of the road. ' Ho' was unable to.-distin-guish any of the wheel tracks of the cars. Carter said, ho was ■■ travelling about 25 miles an hour,, or perhaps more, and when questioned about Keegan's speed'he said without hesitation that it was about 15 miles an hour. Witness, was satisfied that the position in which ho saw the ears was that in which they canie to rest.after the collision. ■ . ■':_■■' Evidence was given by Matthew J. Shiel, also a motor-driver, that he was a passenger in Keegan's car along with a Miss Barber and a Miss- Duggan. There was no liquor in Keegan's car, and none had been taken during the drive. He corroborated Keegan's statement regarding the position of the cars on the road and'the speed at which they were travelling before the collision. , ■ Elsie E. Duggan and Kathleen Barber,: laundresses, passengers ; in Keegan's car, gave similar evidence to the previous witnesses regarding the approach of Carter's car. ■ /Alfred Walker, City Council traffic inspector, said that in his . ■'opinion neither driver snbuia have been dazzled on tho bend. A spSed of about 20 to 25 miles an hour would be reasonable. To Mr. O'Leary, witness said that according to his' measurements Carter was two feet on his wrong sido of the road and Keegan was just on his, correct side. From the result of the collision he was'unable to give an estimate of the speeds of the respective cars. "COLLISION INEVITABLE." Walter Raymond Carter, draper, said that the deceased, his mother, was sitting in the front seat of his car alongside him .with a Miss Warder. He estimated his speed at over 20 miles an hour, but not more than 25 miles an hour. There was a double bend in the road, and after passing the second corner ho was immediately confronted by the glaring headlights of Keegan's car. Koegan's car was then about two lengths away. Seeing that a collision was . inevitable, he applied his brakes and skidded about a yard. The cars, however, collided^ practically head on. His mother received a head wound from a metal bracket on the wind-screen. She' was thrown forward and- apparently disengaged, the . safety lock on the ear door, for it flew open and she fell backwards head down on to the ground. About two hours later his mother was' taken to the Hospital, where she died. Ho agreed_ that he was-two feet on his wrong side of the road, but Keegan, in his opinion, was not as far over on his correct side of '■£, the road as he could have been. Wit- 0 , ness denied that he was travelling too t j fast to keep on his correct side of the a road. To keep absolutely on the left- - hand side of the road, he said, the left- s: hand side wheels of a car would be c; running in grass.' His car had been d sold as a wreck. sinco the accident. s< Tliero were two "bucket" seats in the ji front of his car, but he did not con- oi sider, becauso Miss Warder was seated between him and his. mother, that the- di car was overcrowded. They had m driven together in that manner on m

said that the first she saw of Keegan's car was its dazzling headlights. She did not know whether Mrs. Cartel-, seeing that a collision was inevitable, jumped out of the car or was thrown out by the impact.

Hairy E. Dowdy, son-in-law of the deceased* said that because- of tho formation of the road tho tendency of motorists .was to use the middle of'the