LITTLE GIRL’S DEATH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 847, 16 December 1929, Page 1

LITTLE GIRL’S DEATH

KNOCKED DOWN ON FOOTPATH BY CYCLIST CORONER ISSUES WARNING From Our Oicn Correspondent WAIHI, Saturday. Comment on the practice of riding on footpaths, which has grown up of late years in Karangahake on account of the town being more or less deserted, was made by the district coroner, Mr. W. M. Wallnutt, yesterday afternoon, when he held an Inquest concerning the death of Mary Elizabeth Bramble, aged six years, who was fatally injured at Karangahake on Thursday afternoon as the result of being knocked down by a bicycle ridden on a footpath by Leonard Alfred Nelson, aged 12. The evidence showed that Nelson was double-banking another boy, Charles Allen, and that Mary Bramble and her companion stepped aside to let him pass, but that the little girl ran out in front of the machine to join her friends on the other side of the footpath. She was knocked down and the two lads, who endeavoured to avoid her, fell off the bicycle. It was not until two or three hours later lilac it became apparent that the girl was seriously injured, and Dr. J. McMurray Cole, of Waihi, ordered her admission to the Waihi Hospital as he considered an operation the only chance of saving her life. The child died on admission to the institution. She had received a fracture of the skull, and in the opinion of the doctor death was due to pressure on the brain, caused by a haemorrhage. “This is a very sad, but purely accidental occurrence,” said the coroner. “Riding on a footpath is an offence under the Police Offences Act, but we know that it is quite common in Karangahake, especially among children. It is, however, my duty to point out the danger that exists, and this sad fatality should be a warning to children generally, and also to adults. A simple accident resulted in the death of this little girl, and the lesson to be taken from it is that no person can afford to take a risk.” A verdict of accidental death was returned, and the coroner extended the sympathy of the court to the child's parents.