NO ONE TO BLAME

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 533, 10 December 1928, Page 9

NO ONE TO BLAME

INQUEST ON MANAIA HILL VICTIMS OTHER PASSENGERS RECOVERING (Special to THE SUN) COROMANDEL, To-day. The inquest into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the three victims of the motor accident at Ma« naia Hill gn November 25 was resumed by the coroner, Mr. J. W. Barker, J.P., on Saturday. Mr. W. Wilson, the driver of the car, said he and Mr. V. S. Carrol occupied the front seat of the car, while his wife, Ella Wilson, their two daughters and his father, Mr. W. Wilson, senior, occupied the back seat. When near the top of the rise one of the party touched him and exclaimed: ‘'There is a car coming.” He pulled in to the side of the road and the near wheels of the car got into the water table. In an endeavour to extricate the car he used extra power, and turned the steering-wheel half over. After travelling about 30 yards, the front-near wheel suddenly mounted the road, and. before he could apply any brakes, the car shot across the road and over the bank. Dr. N. Rawstron, medical superintendent of the Coromandel Hospital, gave evidence as to the causes of death. He said the little girl, Jessie Wilson, when brought in about 6 p.m.. was unconscious. She died a few minutes after. Her skull was fractured and her brain injured. A subsequent examination showed that Mrs. Wilson’s neck was broken, and Mr. Wilson, sen., had received a fatal head injury. Constable D. McLean said he saw the track of the car in the course described by the driver, from there it entered the water-table to where St crashed over the bank. The water-table was 3in. deep where the car had entered it, and the same depth where it left, but it deepened to about 12in. midway between. The edge nearest the road was perpendicular. The front wheel of the car had travelled hard against it at an angle. He was satisfied the mishap was purely accidental, and might have happened to any driver. The coroner found that the deceased were accidentally killed through, the car in which they were travelling leaving the road suddenly and capsizing down an incline, no blame being attachable to the driver. The coroner also commented on tlie splendid response of the settlers to the succour of the injured. Mr. Wilson is still suffering severely from nervous shock, and has been orj dered by his doctor to take a prolonged rest. His other little daughter, Margaret, who was slightly injured. is now convalescent, and Mr. Carrol, who had several ribs broken, is satisfactorily progressing.