DEATH OF CYCLIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 884, 30 January 1930, Page 13

DEATH OF CYCLIST

MYSTERY OF MISSING CAR EVIDENCE AT INQUEST Press Association WELLINGTON", Today. An inquest was held today with regard to the death of Charles Bell, 19, who was run down by a motorcar while cycling on the Hutt Valley Road, near Lower Hutt, on November 28. The young woman who was with Bell at the time gave evidence of hearing the car approach. It had good lights ancl from the noise it was making was travelling very fast. She remembered being struck and dragge'd with the car, but when she recovered the lights were retreating in the distance. She did not see it stop. It was a light-coloured two or threeseater. J. B. Grey, engineer to the Hutt Valley Power Board, said he was standing outside his office when he saw the lights of a car coming from Petone. He heard the impact about three and a-haif chains from him, and the car pulled up near him. An elderly woman got out backward. She appeared to be either infirm or under the influence of liquor. Then a voice, apparently that of a younger woman, inside the car and evidently' at the wheel, said, “My God! I think I’ve killed a man.” There was a muttered conversation, after which the elderly woman got into the car again. Witness took the number and thought it was 99.151. He xvent to the injured man and called a doctor and the police. When he went to the telephone the car had gone. Other evidence showed that the number taken was that of a delivery van belonging to a plumber, Herbert Willis, which the police were satisfied was not used that evening. Most exhaustive efforts had failed to trace the car. The coroner adjourned the inquest till Saturday morning, saying he would look through the files to see yvhether there was any' direction in which the inquiry should be pursued further.