AUCKLAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 5, Issue 266, 17 May 1865, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

Pat At Accident.— -An accident attended with fatal, result* occurred- on the 20th,April, on the road between Te Roro and this camp (To Awaminu). It appears that a soldier’s wife named Ellea Brodie was' proceeding to Te Awamuru on a Visit to her husband, who is in hospital as an invalid. On arriving at Pate.rangi, she requested and obtained p raission to ride the remainder of th» distance to To Awarautu upoii a loaded dray belonging tb Mr -Thorpe, and in charge of a man in- his employ named John Duncan. i O i the way from I'aterarigi to the scene of the fatal acei* deat, tlie_dcoy was overtaken by a man of the Royal Engineers, named James Suee, ! who remained with it, and witnessed the occurrence which followed. Nothing unusual occurred until the party were ascending a steep hill situate about four miles from this post. Here, from some cause or other not very satisfactorily explained in the evidence adduced at the inquest, but probably from the dray being overloaded, the horses jibbed, and the throat-strap of the shaft horse breaking, his-winker? fell off, and he became unmanageable. Whether it was the breaking of tlie throat-strap and the consequent slipping off of the shaft horse’s winkers which caused thi? jibbing, or - whether these were broken by tlie restiveness of the horses, is not clearly shown in the subjoined copy of the notes of the inquest. If the former, the cause of the fatal accident is apparent; but if the Utter, the jibbing must have occurred through the cart being overloaded, or gome irregularity ip the liar, ness. It does not appear, however, t hat the driver is deserving of any blame whatever; and 1 can state from experience that many horses will sometimes “jib" in a most unacountable manner, more especially when they are illfrained or naturallj vicious, and in such cases the driver is often unable t) prevent accidents. But to resume : upon the horse jibbing, the driver requested James Snee to hold the leading horses, and the latter switched him, upon which the cart backed and capsized, throwing the unfortunate woman, Mrs Brodie, to the ground, beneath a quantity of corrugated iron, which formed. part, of the loud. The deceased was’ under -the cart fora bout five minutes, and during the time the engineer James Snee, observed blond issuing from under the load. On removing the deceased, she was found to be dt-ad, the cause? of death being according to medical testimony—two deep wounds in the scalp, and a fraetur of the cervical portion of the vertebral column. Only a few Words are said to have been uttered by the unfortunate women after- the occurrence of the accident, and these, although almost unintelligible, were interpreted by the two men to bo a call on her husband. The body was brought into this camp at 1 p.m. yesterday, and placed in a lent in the hospital belonging to the 40th Regiment, where Drs Young and Stiles, 40th, examined if. —New Zealander