MOTOR ACCIDENT

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 163, 27 March 1939, Page 2

MOTOR ACCIDENT

CYCLIST ‘ FATALLY INJURED COLLISION ON STANLEY TRACK Fatal injuries were received by lan Hugh Leislmian, aged 16 years, only son of Mr. and Mrs. H. J. S. LeisU-, man, on Saturday, afternoon, whcii{ his bicycle collided with a motor-car on Stanley Track road. The scene of the accident was on a slight bend at the bottom of a steep hill about 75 yards from the gate loading to the'house '-hi his parents. The . boy was hurrying from his home on a bicycle to assist at the -cowshed, which is some little distance down the roadl. The car with which he collided was driven by Mr., William Alexander McCracken, a farm of. Bast-bank, Edigeeumbe, and Miss .Mildred Place, a schoolteacher of Edgecumbe, was a passenger in the car. The boy was taken to the Opotiki Hospital bv Mr. McCracken, suffering from a fractured . skull, deep gashes at the back of liis left shoulder, and smaller cuts on liis neck, in a deeply unconscious condition. Death occurred at about 9.'30 o’clock on Saturday evening. .EVIDENCE AT INQUEST The inquest was opened this morni*ing before the district -ecronef, Mr. F’: J. Short. William Alexander McCracken, of Edgecumbe, stated that lie was driving from Taneatua along Stanley Track road at about 4.30 p.m. He was coming round a slight bend on an uphill grade, when he saw a boy coming down-hill round the bend on a bicycle at great speed. The driver could see over the bonnet of his car and the boy was well on his wrong side. The boy was about 12 to 15 feet from the car .when witness first saw him. The car was in top gear and was just- approaching the steep part of the grade. As witness could! see -no possibility of the boy passing the car on the correct, side, he pulled over slightly to the right. Witness did not think the boy had any chance of avoiding the ear owing to liis fast speed. The left hand bar of the bicycle hit the spare tyre which is attached to the front left hand mudguard of the car. The boy then hit the left hand glass shield over the front door and also the windb-w in the door, breaking both of them. Witness applied the brakes and pulled up in two or three l'eet. When lie got out ot ; the car he foiind the boy lying close to the bank, apparently unconscious, and about eight feet from the back of the car. One ol the boy’s'leg.s was lying across the. wheel of >-tlie bicycle. Miss Place went for assistance. Witness put the hoy in the car and took him to hospital. Miss Mildred Place, a -''school teacher at Edgecumbe, stated that she saw no one approaching as she was looking clown at the time. Witness heard a crash of glass and the car stopped dead. - .. Sergeant J. Isbister stated- that on 25th. inst. lie received information that a .boy named Lei slim an. bad been severely injured on Stanley Track. That evening Mr. McCracken called atthe Police Station and reported -the accident. Witness examined the car aiicl foilind the hub on the loft hand front wheel was dented'and the spare wheel on the mudguard, pit the same side had abrasions. .Both the left- haiicl windows were broken, '11..; driver’s license and certificate or fitness were in i rder. Next moru-ng witness proceeded to the scene of t-lu ncclucnr which was on a bend on 1 air!steep grade, about one in- twelve about 75

yards from Mr. Leishmau’s road gate. The width of the road was -ten feet nietalled, but from bank to bank 161. feet. There was a. quantity of glass in the watertable, and a patch of blood on the bank 20 feet back from where the glass was lying. The tracks of the car and bicycle were not discernible. ' The front part of the bicycle was badly damaged. Medical evidence was. given by Dr. H. J\ Mail, who stated that the boy was suffering from a fractured skull, with a large bruise over the lelt ear and! three large gashes at the back of the left shoulder, with several smaller wounds on the left 'side of. the neck, from which glass was extracted. The boy died at about 9.30 p*.m.- from laceration of the brain caused by a fractured skull.

The coroner returned! a- verdict that deceased met his death as the result of laceration of the brain, caused by a

fractured skull, through colliding, whilst on his bicycle, -with a car driven by Mr. William Alexander McCracken. CAR TURNS OVER OPOTIKI RESIDENT -INJURED ACCIDENT NEAR- MAT AT A A motor car. driven by Mr. Vincent Sotheran, school master at Omarumutu, turned over while returning from the Tauranga races at about 7.50 o’clock on Saturday evening. The car was turning. a. corner near.the Matata subway in. a cloud of dust and skidded in loose, metal, overturning. Mr. J. Foy (juni\) df Opotiki received scalp wounds and was admitted to the ,Whakatane Hospital. Mrs. Foy and Miss P.' Tew wlio were other passengers in the car, were uninjured.