INQUEST RESUMED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 34, 10 February 1939, Page 9

INQUEST RESUMED

DEATH OF TRAFFIC INSPECTOR VERDICT OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH 1 Per Press Association.] ROTORUA, Feb. 9. The inquest was resumed to-day before Mr. A. J. Tong, coroner, into the circumstances of the death of Thomas Arthur Allcock, main highways traffic inspector of the Rotorua district, who suffered fatal injuries on Christmas Eve when he was struck by a lorry on the Rotorua-Ngongotaha main highway while in the act of regulating traffic. Frank Leslie Park, public works engineer, who was an eye-witness to the accident, said that his attention was first attracted by the light of a torch being waved, and as he approached he perceived Inspector Allcock, whom he recognised, standing beside his car, which was parked on the side of the road. When he was about fifty feet distant he saw a lorry emerge from the rear of Allcock’s car. The inspector appeared to turn his head and shoulders as though startled by the lorry and seemed involuntarily to step outwards. He would be in the path of the lorry when witness first saw him and the step would bring him further into its path. He was struck by the front of the lorry and carried a distance of 46 feet. The lorry was not travelling faster than 26 miles an hour and pulled up quickly. After the accident its lights appeared to be dim. Witness considered that approximately six seconds elapsed between the time he first saw the torch and the impact. He considered the driver of the lorry should have been able to perceive the light for approximately the same distance. The traffic was very heavy on the road at the time. The inspector appeared to be waving the light with the object of steadying it down.

The medical evidence showed that the left side of Allcock’s chest was severely crushed, causing lung and chest injuries from which he died. Frederick William McLean, driver of the lorry, said that he saw a parked car when some distance back. He pulled out to pass it, allowing about three feet clearance, when suddenly a man appeared and walked out in front of him at an angle to the parked car. He had no time to avoid an accident, his lorry striking Allcock, who appeared to fall between the wheels. The impact would be on the right-hand side of his vehicle and Allcock appeared to him to have travelled six or seven feet out towards the centre of the road. He had his back toward witness and did not appear to see him. Witness pulled up immediately and picked up the injured man. Witness admitted that one of his lights was not as good as the other owing to a defective bulb, but contended that the lights were nevertheless quite good and that the visibility was not impaired.

The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death, remarking that despite the conflict of evidence between the driver of the lorry and Park it appeared that nothing could have saved Allcock.