INQUESTS.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 8, 9 June 1874, Page 2

INQUESTS.

On Monday afternoon an inquest was held at Smith's Courtenay Arms Hotel, near Kaiapoi, before C. Dudley, Esq, coroner for the district, and a jury, of whom Mr E. T. Revell was chosen foreman, in reference to the cause of death of Thomas Robert O'Callaghan, who was killed on Saturday evening, June 6th, by the capsize of his American waggon near Coutts' bridge. Mr Inspector Barsham conducted the enquiry on the part of the police. The jury having viewed the body, the following evidence was adduced : Henry Smith, licensee of the Courtenay Arms, Waimakari bridge, sworn, deposed—l recollect Saturday evening last. About twenty minutes past seven o'clock as near as I could judge, Messrs Joseph Beswick, J. A. Shaw, and R. Macfarlane came up on a spring dray. Mr Beswick told me he heard some one cooeying at the other bridge, and said he thought there might be an accident. The other bridge is about two miles or a mile and half off. I came in and asked William Dickie to go and see if there was any one wanting help. Mr Beswick said he would wait till Dickie returned. Dickie went immediately on horseback. Mr Beswick and party remained till he came back. Dickie went alone. He returned in about a quarter of an hour. He said that O'Callaghan was dead. I asked Mr Shaw to take the waggon and take me and Mr Beswick's party with him to where O'Callaghan was. Before we started I sent James Stewart to Kaiapoi for Dr Fletcher. When we got there I the deceased lying on his back, apparer>' j * dead. He was not under the trap. J+ -£A been removed when I got there. T o p ened his shirt and felt his heart, which > iJM j C e ase d to beat. When we got there, F u "storer W Ross, 0. Birnie, and anot> aer ' ' had arrived. The body waa oa the left . harid side of the approach._ j did not gee the waggon or notice + „ ne place particularly. The body was pW a in a dray and brought to my house. D r Dudley, from Kaiapoi, shortly afterward,, arrLyed aild exam ined the body, and s^i d he was dead. It was very dark wheD. deceased left my house. He made no observation to me about the night being dark, bhortly before the accident the deceased, who was driving an American waggon, called at my house. He had come from Christchurch, and was going home. He was by himself. He had one glass of whisky, and was perfectly sober. He took up Mr Storer from here to go home with him. Mr Beswick's party said they bad passed O'Callaghan near the bridge. i

Di Dudley said he might here state that when he arrived the deceased appeared to have been dead a short time, r.nd there were! no other marks about him but such as would be accounted for by the accident. Edward Storer, farmer, K&iapoi Island, sworn, deposed—l live at the top of the island, beyond Mr O'Callaghan's. Our land joins all but the road. I have been fully acquainted with the deceased for four or five years. On Saturday I went to Christchnrch with him in the morning in his waggon, and in the evening I returned by the train, and he took me up at the Courtenay Arms Hotel at about 7 o'clock. It was about that time when we left the Courtenay Arms togegether in a one-horse American waggon. When he got down to Mr Wright's corner he remarked "this isa better thingthan a twowheeled trap." The horse was quiet. He had told me in the morning that it was twenty years old. As we got to Clark's corner we heard a trap coming and voices. The parties were Mr Beswick and others who had been rabbit shooting. We spoke, and then went on to the bridge over the cutting. We went over it at a trot and as we got over the bridge on to the shingle he said "my old mare, Storer, knows this; road," just then the wag;gon went over on the left side of the approach. Mr O'Callaghan was driving, I was on the left side. When it turned over the deceased appeared to get hold of me as I was pitched oat of the left side and the waggon came on top of us. The deceased was under the front part of the waggon, the first words I said " are you all clear Tom," he said he was fast. I was fast too, and we laid so for about thirty minutes —till assistance came. I called out a score of times or more for assistance. William Dickie was the first who came. I heard him coming and called again, and heard him say, " Here they are." Another man came up, and they released us. When I was free I lifted O'Callaghan's head up and said " I believe he is dead." We must have been under the trap half an hour, and it must have been ten minutes from his last speaking to me till the trap was taken up. We had both tried to get out. The last he said was "Lordhave mercy upon us," " Oh my dear wife," and he breathed heavily. I was only stiff and cold, but not injured. I staid with the body until assistance was cbj tained to take it away.

By juror—The horse was thrown ever on its side, but did not drag us. By police—The night was very dark and foggy. The approach is very titeep, and not fenced. The incline ought to be made less steep, and the road should be fenced. The road is so narrow that a horse shying might easily go over. If it had been fenced in the accident would not have happened. By Juror—lt was about two minutes after we met Mr Beswick and party that the accident occurred. They would be nearly at the Courtenay Arms when I began to cooey, as I laid some time before calling out. There ia a curve at the end of the approach. William Dickie, farmer, residing on Xaiapoi Island, sworn, deposed—On Saturday night last Messrs Beswick, Shaw, and Macfarlane came to the Courteuay Arms, and said they thought some one had got into trouble. They said that Mr O'Callaghan and some one had passed them between Clark's and the bridge over the cutting. I went on horseback, and on the way called to Mr Clark, and we went together to the bridge, and found the waggon upset. With the assistance of B. Lissaman we got the waggon up, and released Storer, when Lissaman Baid O'Callaghan was in the waggon, or I would not have known he was there. O'Callaghan was dead. I took his hand and felt it. He was dead. His head was lying to the horse's tail. 1 could not tell if he was lying on his face or back. The waggon was fairly upset on the left side of the approach. Stoirer said they had been there twenty minutes or half an hour, and for the last ten minutes or so O'Callaghan had not spoken. The splashboard of the waggon was on deceased's chest. I am in the habit of frequently crossing the bridge on that road, as I live near the approach. It is very steep and. narrow. Where the accident happened, it has-, also a sharp turn. Either end of the bridge-, is equally dangerous. The approaches want; to be widened, straightened, made less steep,, and fenced. The night was very dark. Deceased had no lamps. His horse was a perfectly quiet one. We found it lying on its side, one shaft under it. Nicholas Ellis, at the request of Mr Jasper O'Callaghan, was called. He being sworn, deposed—l am a surveyor to a Road Board. I have examined the embankment of the bridge where this accident happened. The gradient is 1 in 13, and the width of roadway 22ft on the top. It is not of a sufficient width for a roadway for so steep a gradien'| The highest part of the embankment is 10ft or lift. The length of the embankment from the bridge to the level is 132 ft, nearly straight. I have had a good deal of practical experience in Road Board works. If the embankment were made 6ft or 7ft wider on each side, or fenced, it would be safer. By Foreman—ln some parts the edge of the embankment is 1 in 1, and some perpendicular, and which has probably "oeen partly washed away by the flood.

James Freeman Fletcher, du>'y.q Ua Hfi e <l medical practitioner, residing a t Kaiapoi, sworn, deposed—l have the ev idence given, and have also e*ar jined the body of deceased externally. T iie ribs on the leffc . hand side are beaten ia and depresse a. I have no hesitation in Baying tbafc the con . tinued pressure on tbat part of the body would oause <\ eattl( j formed that opinion before hear)* ag tbe evidence, lam satisfied tnat deat a wag caused D y the result of thab presßur d on tbe cbest a j one and by t,he aCol, \ent.

The Coroner summed up, stating there could be no doubt deceased came to his death by accident, and the jury if they saw fit might express any opinion in reference to the state of the approach, which it had been shewn by the evidence was a dangerous one and which opinion, as a rider, would be forwarded by him to the proper authorities. The jury returned a verdict that deceased came to his death by accident and not otherwise, adding as a rider, " The jury wish to call the special attention of the Eyreton Road Board to the extremely dangerous state of the approach to the bridge over the cutting, and request the coroner to forward a copy of this rider to the chairman of the board."

An inquest was held yesterday at the Swan Hotel, before J. W. S. Coward, Esq., coroner, on the body of Maria, daughter of Mr E. Eastwood, living off the Windmill road, who died suddenly on Sunday last. The medical evidence showed that death had resulted from diphtheria, and the jury returned a verdict of "Died from natural causes,"