SPEED AND DEATH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3767, 15 March 1928, Page 2

SPEED AND DEATH.

FATAL MOTOR-CYCLE ACCIDENT.

Christchurch, March 13. Failing to bring his motor-cycle round to take the turn from Walters Road into Preston’s Road, Marshland, last night, Reginald Havelock McDonald, aged 18, of Chancellor Street, Richmond, crashed over a culvert and through a fence. He died of his injuries. McDonald, who had been employed as a. salesman by Adams Ltd., was a son of Mr. Ernest C. McDonald. Shortly after midnight, with George James Quaid, of Marshland, riding pillion, McDonald was riding back towards the city after attending a dance.

At the inquest, George James Quaid stated that they were travelling at between 40 and 50 miles an hour at the time of the accident. Instead of turning to the right, the machine went straight on, knocked down three planks which were erected to prevent anyone going over the drain, and then went headlong across an eleven-foot ditch, through a barbed-wire fence, and came to rest 19 feet from the edge of the ditch. Both witness arttk McDonald were hurled off the machine, The latter whs unconscious and one side of his face was covered with blood. He was dead before he arrived at the hospital. The medical evidence showed that the cause ot' death was shock, following a dislocation of the cerebral vertebrae.

In recording a verdict of accidental death, the Coroner (Mr. E. D. Mosley) said it was just another ease of a young man of promise being killed through riding at too great a speed.