LADY MOTOR CYCLIST'S TRAGIC END. Fatal Collision With a Bus.
The tragic death of a well-known and popular young lady, Miss Ethel Frances May Hearn, aged 22, of 868 Garratt-lane, Tooting, was inquired into by Mr. Oddie, sitting with a jury at Battersea Coroner's Court on Tuesday afternoon.
Miss Hearn was killed by colliding with a bus at the Wandsworth Common end of Nightingale-lane on Saturday evening. Her parents are the proprietors of a cycle business at 868 Garratt-lane. The family formerly lived at Austin-road, Battersea.
The young lady was an ardent motor cyclist and a skilled motor mechanic. She is said to have understood the mechanism of a motor cycle from A to Z. Among her parents' customers and their friends, she organised a kind of motor cycling club, and when anything went amiss with a machine she was the one at once appealed to, and never in vain. An expert rider, she had driven hundreds of miles in various parts of the country.
On Saturday night while out for a spin on her motor cycle she came into collision with a 67 L.G.O.C. [London General Omnibus Company] bus in Nightingale-lane, near the junction with Bolingbroke-grove.
At the inquest Mr. Richard Hearn, 868 Garratt-lane, said deceased was his daughter. A healthy girl, with good sight and hearing, she had ridden a motor cycle for three years, and was a skilled motor cycle mechanic. He knew that she was in the habit of riding along Bolingbroke-grove and Nightingale-lane. When she went for a ride on Saturday evening she had a pillion passenger, a young man named Fennell, a great friend of the deceased. Witness had seen him in St. James's Infirmary since the accident. Mr. Fennell had said: "I am very sorry. She is not to blame. She was going on the near side of the road when the motor bus hit her sideways. After that I knew no more."
Dr. Pinot, assistant medical officer at St. James's Infirmary, said deceased was dead when brought in about 5 o'clock on Saturday night. She was a healthy, developed girl. The cause of death was multiple injuries.
James David Norvell, a postman of Swaby-road, stated that about 7.45 p.m. on Saturday he was a passenger on the 67 bus from the direction of Bellevue-road towards Clapham. He saw a motor cycle coming from the direction of Bolingbroke-grove. He put the speed of the cycle at 30 to 35 miles an hour.
The cycle had passed the water trough and was going in the direction of Bellevue Bridge, until the driver seemed to suddenly change direction. She swung to her left. As a result the cycle came directly in front of the bus, about two yards away. It seemed as though the cyclist was trying to get round it. Then the collision occurred. Had the cyclist kept straight on her original course there could have been no collision, as there was no other traffic about.
Witness heard the bus driver sound his hooter. He felt that the brakes were on as the bus came down from Bellevue Bridge. The driver pulled up immediately after the accident, stopping in six feet. He did his utmost, in witness's opinion, to avoid the accident, pulling over to his right and mounting the kerb with his off-side front wheel.
Witness dismounted from the bus and then saw a young man, who he was told had been riding pillion on the cycle, unconscious on the ground. Deceased was lying near him. The cycle was beneath the wheels of the bus.
P.C. Loveless said he was called and found deceased lying on her back about two yards from the bus. A man was lying injured near her. The front off-side wheel of the bus was about half a yard on the footway, opposite No. 157 Nightingale-lane. The driver said: "I was coming down Nightingale-lane at about 30 miles an hour when a motor cycle approaching cut across in front of me. I did my best to avoid it by swerving but I think I struck it with my starting handle."
In reply to the coroner, the constable said it was possible that deceased thought the bus in front of her was a "49" instead of a "67," as both routes passed near the scene, each then taking a different direction.
Mr. William Lewis, 24 New-street, Kensington, the driver of the bus, said he drove steadily from Bellevue Bridge, as he had a stop shortly ahead. At the bend of Bolingbroke-grove he saw he had a clear road. A moment later he saw a motor cycle coming across Bolingbroke-grove. Witness sounded his horn and pulled over to the centre of the road. That gave the cyclist plenty of room to pass the bus on its near side. She turned to the opposite side and cut right across the front of the bus. Witness applied his brakes and swung over to his off-side to try to avoid a collision, but the cycle came on obliquely and struck the front of the bus. He estimated deceased's speed at 20 miles an hour. He had been 15 years in the service of the L.G.O.C., had a clean licence, and held two "safety first" diplomas.
The coroner said it was a case of a girl motor cyclist, doubtless an expert, riding with a pillion passenger. Unfortunately she was killed, and also unfortunately her passenger was badly injured, as a result of the collision with the bus. Deceased was probably mistaken in the route she thought the bus might follow, and that was the cause of the collision. The evidence was clear that the bus driver did all in his power to avert the accident. He pulled up in his own length after swerving to miss the cycle.
It was quite obvious that deceased mistook the "67" bus for a "49," which diverged at the crossroads in a different direction, and she steered her course accordingly — unfortunately, with tragic consequences.
The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death," and exonerated the bus driver from all blame. The funeral took place at Streatham Cemetery the following day, leaving deceased's home shortly before noon.
