DIED OF PNEUMONIA

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 12, 29 January 1937, Page 11

DIED OF PNEUMONIA

Man Whose Neck Was Broken in Lorry Smash VERDICT AT INQUEST That death was due to pneumonia following severance of the spinal cord was the vordict returned yesterday by the Napier coroner, Mr. A- E. Bedford, J.P., at the conclusion of the resumed inquest into the death of Norman Edward Christoft'ersen, aged 35, a Public Works Department employee. He died a,t thef Napier Public Hospital on January 10 after breaking his neck when the lorry in which he was riding went over a bank four days earlier on a road leading down near Poraite to the Ahuriri Lag'oon reclamation works. The coroner's verdicl was based upon evidence given by the actingmedical superintendent of the Napier Publie Hospital, Dr. A. G. Clark. He said that Christoffersen was admitted to hospital in the evening of January 12 suffering from a fraetured dislocation of the neck. As a result of«'this, he died four days later from pneumonia. « Thoinas Williams, employed as a lorry-driver by Williams aud Oreagh, Ltd., recalled driving a lorry down a steep road leading to the western side of the Ahuriri Lagoon from near Poraite on January 12 last. The road was only about nine feet wide, with a nletal surfaee. The deceased was a passenger in the cab of the vehicle. "We were travelling ' down the hill at about 12 miles an hour when I felt a pull on the front wheel, ' ' he added "I tried to steer the lorry back on to the road, but owing to the steep side the wheel would not lift up, With the result that the back wheel followed the fropt wheel off the side of the road . the lorry rolled over the bank, .coming to rest at the bottom on its left side. "I was thrown out and landed about two feet away and was not seriously hurt. I called out to . the deceased in the cab and he said he was all right. Then I went up to him and asked if he was all right, and he replied: 'No.' He was lying with his head on one side and .his feet out of the windscreen. ' ' Witness then went for assistance to get him out of the cab. A, second lorry approaehed with two men and eventually the deceased was sent to the Napier Hospital in a private car. The brakes of the lorry were in good order, having just been tested 'by the Government inspector. "The lorry was about 10 or 12 feet below the levq] of the road when I »aw it," said" Harold Balfe, cartage contractor, of Napier, who was driving

.he lorry -which appeared on the acene shortly after the mishap. ' „ Mr. Bedford: Would you cail tho road a dangerous one? y Witness: Yes, I would. Sorgcant Carmody: Do you think the driver exercised care on this occasion? Witness: Yes, I do. rieslie Edwin Pisher, who was with Ralf e in his lorry, corroborated his evidence.