ACCIDENTAL DEATH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 50, 29 January 1932, Page 8

ACCIDENTAL DEATH.

FATALITY AT BUNNYTHORPE. INQUEST-HELD. , “It may be aome comfort to you to know that deceased spent his last hours rendering assistance to a bereaved family, stated the Coroner (Mr A. J. Graham) -to the father of Errol Jack Mason, aged 17, to-day, „ when an inquest was held into the oircumstances connected with the death of the youth near Bunnythorpe last week-end. 7 ■ Dr. Putnam gave evidence that on Sunday last he was called to Reid’s Line at about 7.45 p.m. He there saw the body of deceased down a bank. Deoeased was lying on. his back beside his overturned motor-cycle; he was dead, and had been severely cut about the face. An examination disclosed that his neck was broken, and that had caused his death. Walter Mason, a. labourer, of Grey Street, gave formal evidence of identification, stating that deceased was his son. Deceased, he said, had been over the track before. Viggo Daniel Hansen, a railway guard, stated that on January 24 he accompanied deoeased to the funeral of Mr A. Elwin. At about 7.45 p.m., witness, with deceased, left the farm on a motor-cycle. Deoeased drove and witness was_ ip the side-chair. 'They were travelling at a reasonable speed —about 20 or 30 miles an hour—down the hill on Reid’s Line, a little-fre-quented road. It was narrow and had a big camber to the right side. Just before the accident occurred the machine got on to the wrong side of the road. Deoeased applied his brakes and the machine went over the bank. It turned over three , times. Witness was thrown into the scrub, while the machine fell right on deceased’s head. Witness thought that his companion was dead, and went up to Mr El win's place to secure assistance; Witness thought the accident was cansed by the camber of the road and the application of the brakes. Deoeased vas an experienced driver ronnd the town, but not on country roads. The Coroner returned a verdict that deoeased was accidentally killed through the overturning of the motorcycle which he was riding.