DEMENTED MAN BUTTS A TRAM CAR.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9088, 6 March 1908, Page 3

DEMENTED MAN BUTTS A TRAM CAR.

A novel method of suicide was described at the inquest on Thomas Heringshaw Forman, 60, an nnestablished postman. The deputy coroner explained that the man was seen to suddenly rush in front of a London County Council tramcar in motion, and butt at it with his head. He was killed outright. Elizabeth Forman, a daughter, said her father nad not been to work for two months. He had delusions and had been under observations in the Greenwich Infirmary. When he was discharged on December 31st_ he appeared to have recovered, in fact, he seemed very well indeed, £and bright. During the last week he had appeared very strange. _ He had never threatened to commit suicide. It had'been thought desirable to send him back to the infirmary, and it had been discussed on the very morning of his death. Henry Langnsh, of Peckham, the driver of the car, said the man darted from the kerb into the oar, which he butted with bis head. The car was travelling about eight miles an hour. Dr. George Adams,chouse surgeon atithe Seaman’s Hospital, where the deceased was taken, said he was dead on arrival. His breastbone and skull were fractured, and daeth must have been instantaneous. Ewdard James Golding, overseer at the Union street post office, said the deceased had been suffering from ■delusions for some time. Although he was not entitled to a pension, he applied for one in December. From until a fortnight previously* he received sickpay, but he was then seen by a doctor, who certified him to be suffering from delusions, and'the case was under consideration as to what was best to be done. The deceased had told the witness’that7persons were going about after him to murder him. The jury returned a verdict of “Suicide during temporary inanity. ’ ’