DEATH FOLLOWS BOY’S PRANK

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 66, 9 June 1927, Page 1

DEATH FOLLOWS BOY’S PRANK

STROVE TO BALANCE ON MOVING LORRY—MANGERE INQUEST TTOW a boyish attempt to A balance on a moving motorlorry at Mangere yesterday ended fatally, was told this morning when the inquest on Bernard James Louden, a schoolboy of 10, was opened by the coroner, Mr. W. R. McKean. The lad’s uncle said that the boy attended the Mangere Bridge School. Hb usually walked, but in bad weather he travelled in the bus. His mother, who is a widow and lives in Robertson Road, gave him the money for his fare yesterday morning, but on the way to school with four other boys, he was picked up by a motor-lorry driver. William George Dunstan. Boy-like, three of the lads were standing up on the lorry on the way up Coronation Road, each endeavouring to keep his balance longer than the others. Near the top of ifm hill the lorry, which was travelling at a moderate pace, swayed, and Louden and a boy named Gordon Eric Overton fell off on to the road. Overton was not hurt. Louden, however, was hurried to the Auckland Hospital, but died on the way from concussion of the braiu.

After evidence of identification had been taken, the inquest was adjourned.