MOTORIST NOT TO BLAME

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 6

MOTORIST NOT TO BLAME

WOMAN CYCLIST’S DEATH EVIDENCE AT INQUEST (From Our Oicn Correspondent) HAMILTON, Friday. That the driver of the motor-car concerned was not to blame wills the opinion expressed by the coroner, Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., when the inquest concerning the death of Mrs. Rose Fear was resumed today. Mrs. Fear was riding a bicycle when she was knocked down by a car driven by Mr. G. W. Carter, of Cambridge. Airs. Mabel Thompson said she was driving along Grey Street when Mr. Carter’s car passed her. Mrs. Fear appeared on her cycle from behind an approaching car, and both she and Mr. Carter's car swerved just before the accident. Mr. Carter was driving carefully. Or. J. G. Mackeretli, of the Waikato Hospital, gave evidence that Mrs. Fear was admitted to the hospital on August 14. She was suffering from shock and lacerations, and the brain was apparently injured. She died on August 16. William Phairn, carpenter, Cambridge, said he was travelling in Mr. Carter’s car when it collided with Mrs. Fear.

Witness saw the cyclist 20ft in front of the car on the wrong side of the road. She was on the point of turning when Carter swerved to the right. Had he continued on his course or turned to the left it seemed obvious he would have knocked the cyclist down. The cyclist swerved again to the centre of the road and the collision occurred. Carter was travelling at about 20 miles an hour. * George Woodhouse Carter, builder, Cambridge, said he saw Mrs. Fear crossing over the road from witness’s right-hand side. Airs. Fear was about a chain away. Witness pulled his car out to the right to avoid her, but Mrs. Fear turned back and witness’s car struck her. The coroner said he thought that Mrs. Fear was going to her work, and was about to cross the road to the house where she was to work. She had given no indication of her intention to turn. Carter’s decision to alter his course and pass behind her was the correct one, in view of the fact that the road was clear of other traffic. Mrs. Fear had altered her course, and it was then too late to avoid a collision. Carter was not to blame.

The coroner found that Mrs. Fear had died at the Waikato Hospital from injuries to the brain, received when she was knocked down by a motorcar driven by George Woodhouse Carter.