DEATH OF PEDESTRIAN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 164, 29 July 1937, Page 9

DEATH OF PEDESTRIAN

— Preaa Ass^-iation.*

Collision With Old-Model Car

(By Telegraph

AUCKLAND, This Day. An open verdict was returned by the Coronej, Mr. F. K. Hunt, at tho inquesfc relating to the death in Yictoria road, Belmont, on May 29, of Mrs. Ena Elizabeth Hunt, aged 26, who was "knocked down in a collision with a motor-car as she was crossing the road f.bout 7.50 p.m. John Albert Gibson, aged 20, driver of tho car, said that the car was an cld model which he purchased . two weeks previously for £2. The headlights were in order and the car hau c. certificato of fitness. With three friends he was driving from Devonpart tq attend a party at Takapuna. The car was travelling at a speed of 20 miles an hour on the downgrade, when suddenly he saw two women on the road. He brought the car to a stop, .but not before it had struck both women practically at the moment he saw them. Later he found Mrs. Hunt was fatally injured and her companion injured slightly. To the Coroner witness said that his party was not laughing and talking at the moment of the accident. He thought that the women must have stepped from the footpath directly in front of tho car. He had just emerged from a sodium-lighting area, and he had sinco been told by a bus driver that the effect on a driver was to cause a black spot at times, John J. Gamble, who was on the front seat of the car, corroborated this CMdence. Two young women who witnessed the accident from the opposite side of the road, said that Mrs. Hunt and her companion had been laughing and talking as they wulkod along the footpath aud were arin in arm as they stepped on to the road as the car was approaching. There was a deal of traiiJic at the time. • The police gave evidence that the cai's footbrake after the accident api nared defective. The Coroner found that Mrs. Hunt died as a result of injuries received by being knocked down by a motor-car driven by John Albert Gibson. He said that in view of possible further developinents he would not make any com--ment.