MANGOREI FATALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 February 1922, Page 4

MANGOREI FATALITY.

CORONER’S INQUEST. VERDICT OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH. An inquest into the circumstances «urrounding the death of Barton Avery, a 6-year-old boy who died as th° rcult of being injured by a motor lorry on the Mangorei Road on Thursday last, was held at New Plymouth on Saturday, before Mr. A. W. MoWlem, S.Ai., diustuct coroner. Constable Small, who nad known the dec eased for the last twsivn uenths, gave evidence of identification. W. J. C. Avery, the father of the deceased, «aid the boy was six yea s old to the day. He last saw the boy, who was in the pink of health, at 7 30 on the morning of the accident. From information received later in the lay. witness went to Warn’* place, where he found his son had met with an acci- ( dent, but was conscious, and asked for water. Dr. Fulton was sent for, and arrived shortly afterwards. The ambulance wa* sent for, and the boy was taken to the hospital. Eric Royce Hooker, carrier, said he was the driver of a 4-ton Dennis motor lorry. On returning to town from the hydroelectric works, and coming down the hill on Mangorei Road, he saw a boy and a girl coming up the road towu..s him, the girl being about twenty yards in front of the boy. The girl went tu her left hand side of the road, and th* boy to the opposite side. Witness passed the girl without difficulty, and wat within abuot ten feet of the boy when he started to run across the road, but then stopped. Witness endeavored t® go round in front of him, but the boy ran on again, then stumbled on his face on the road and rolled over on his back. The front right hand wheel of the lorry passed over him, and the -lorry then came to a standstill. Witness put th* brakes on hard before deceased fell. When witness got out of the lorry th« boy was trying to get up. Witness then carried him to Mrs. Warn’* place, when the doctor was ’phoned for and a nurse sent for. To Detective-Sergeant Cooney: The hill where the accident took place was a fairly steep one. Witness was travel* ling between 10 and 12 miles per hour at the time. There was no chanoe of pulling the. lorry to one side, as the road was being filled in at the time, and a subsequent measurement showed it to be only 15 feet in width. Witness cont sidered he had done everything in his power to avoid an accident. To tlie Coroner: He did not sound. his horn or shout a warning, but put w both hand and foot brakes on hard which he thought was the .beat thing he could do. The brakes were kept on till , after the accident. The boy, after going to one side of the road, appeared to get nervous as the lorry approached. Constable Cantell gave evidence as to. proceeding to the scene of the accident ' and examining the locality. Dr. W. Fulton said he examined the boy shortly after the accident, and found ' abrasions on both hips, and a slight ap- , pearance of a bruise on the body. The -boy was suffering from shock, and witness ordered his immediate removal to the hospital, where the boy died next day. The cause of death was a ruptured. stomach, internal haemorrhage, and shock. The coroner said it was plain how the accident happened. Probably if the boy had gone straight across the road and . had not vaccillated, everything would have been all right, ‘but he had evidently become nervous and started to cross to the side of the road where has sister • was. It was sad for the parents, and sad, also, he thought, for the driver, who had apparently done everything he could. ‘ A formal verdict of accidental death in accordance with the medical testimony was returned, the coroner remarking that no blame wa* attachable to any one.