CYCLIST SUCCUMBS TO INJURIES.
DUNEDIN, This Day.
Donald Campbell Thomson, aged 20, died at the Balclutha Hospital from injuries to his head sustained through a fall from a motor-cycle on Saturday. He was found lying on Finegand Road. Apparently his cycle skidded in loose gravel. -Ashburton Guardian, 2/2/1932.
BALCLUTHA DISTRICT NEWS
SOUTH OTAGO
(From Our Own Correspondent.)
BALCLUTHA, February 2.
YOUNG MAN’S DEATH.
An inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of the young man, Donald Campbell Thomson, who died yesterday morning as the result of a fall from his motor cycle on the Finegand-Balclutha road shortly after noon on Saturday, was held at the Balclutha Courthouse to-day before Mr W. Kean, J.P., acting as coroner, and a jury comprising Messrs A. H. Smalley (foreman), A. Rattray, J. McDiarmid, and M. B. Kane.
Donald Campbell Thomson, farmer, of Awamangu, said he had identified the body as that of his son Donald Campbell Thomson, aged 20, who had been employed as a butcher at the Finegand freezing works. His son owned a motor cycle, which he kept at the works, where he boarded, but he usually spent the week-end at home. — Dr D. G, Radcliffe said he had seen the deceased at the Balclutha Hospital on Saturday, when his condition indicated that he was suffering from concussion. The following morning the deceased lapsed into unconsciousness, due to cerebral compression. An operation for the control of haemorrhage and the relief of compression was performed that afternoon. After the operation the condition of the deceased showed an improvement for several hours, but he again lapsed into unconsciousness and death took place at 4 a.m. on Monday, the cause being cerebral compression resulting from a fracture of the skull. — William Owen Fergus Hallum, a slaughterman, stated that on Saturday shortly after noon he left the Finegand freezing works for Balclutha in company with the deceased, on motor cycles. They left the works about the same time, but witness was in the lead. When they had gone about a mile along the road witness looked back, and saw the deceased following. Witness did not look back again until entering Balclutha. He was going at about 30 miles an hour, and the deceased would be travelling at about the same speed. The road at the place where the deceased was found was a bit rough, and there were a few “bumps,” but he saw nothing on the road that would throw a cyclist. The deceased was an experienced motor cyclist, and was in perfect health. Witness knew nothing of the accident until after his arrival in Balclutha, where he had waited for the deceased. — David Johnston, also a butcher, stated that he had left the freezing works on a motor cycle at 12.30 p.m. on Saturday. He saw Hallum leaving before him, but did not see the deceased. When about a mile along the road to Balclutha he saw the deceased lying on the road. His motor cycle was in the centre of the road, about half a chain away. Blood was flowing from wounds in the back of his head. Witness stayed with him till the manager of the freezing works came along in a car and took the deceased to the hospital. Witness noticed where the road had been torn up as from the footrest of a cycle which was skidding. There was no other traffic on the road at that time, and the deceased must have had a clear run. In witness’s opinion the machine had bounced on the rough going, and the speed the machine was travelling at caused the deceased to lose control, and the cycle fell over, the deceased being thrown from his seat. — Wilson Elliott, motor garage proprietor, Balclutha, said the deceased’s cycle had been brought to him for examination on Saturday afternoon after the accident. He found that little damage had been done to the machine, the condition of which bore out the supposition that the accident had been caused by a side skid on a rough piece of road, which had lately been in process of widening. Witness was positive that there had not been a head-on collision. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased met his death from injuries received through being accidentally thrown from a motor cycle. -Otago Daily Times, 3/2/1932.
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