“YOUTH AND SPEED”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 895, 12 February 1930, Page 7

“YOUTH AND SPEED”

DEATH FROM COLLISION WITH VAN

MOUNT ALBERT ACCIDENT “It is another case of youth anil speed,” commented Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., coroner, when an inquest into tlie death of Arnold Arthur McKee, aged IS, was concluded yesterday. McKee, who was the only son of Mrs. G. McKee, Carrington Road, Point Chevalier, received fatal head injuries in a collision between his motorcycle and a van at the corner of Mount Albert Road and Mountain Road on December 31. A verdict of accidental death was returned. Arthur Bernard Barker, who had driven the van, assured the court that he had given the motor-cyclist every chance to pass when it ■ swerved in front of him at the intersection. There had been ample room to pass, two-thirds of the road being' clear, but the motor-cyclist had been travelling at a high speed. After applying his brakes, witness found McKee tying unconscious on the road. Another boy, who had been riding on the pillion seat, did not seem to be seriously injured. Witness, who estimated his own speed at 20 miles an hour, added that he had been driving for four years and had never had an accident. McKee was a capable and careful driver, according to Robert Edward Buchanan, of 11 St. Alban’s Avenue, Dominion Road, who had been riding on the pillion seat when the accident occurred. The speed before the collision had not seemed great and McKee had shut off his engine at the top of the hill before reaching the intersection. Two other witnesses gave it as their opinion that the motor-cycle had been travelling fast. Returning his verdict of accidental death, the coroner found no blame was attachable to the van driver.