Car on a country road in Waipa 1920s
About four miles out from Pokuru near the Te Mawhai station road junction on an August evening in 1925 two motorists passed a strangely stationery car. The door was open, the engine was running, and the headlights were on but there was nobody about.
The next morning the Waipā County road superintendent Mr Westbrook saw the same car on the side of the road and stopped to investigate. He was horrified to find the body of 44-year-old Alfred Jones underneath it.
The police were called and Constable Doyle, along with Dr Hall, hurried to the scene, arriving about 7.30am. The crank handle was in the car, the throttle open to almost its full extent, and the car was in low gear with the brakes off. It seemed Alfred had experienced car trouble and had got out to crank the car, leaving the engine in gear. It appeared that as the crankshaft connected the car had jumped forward, knocking Alfred down and going over him. The doctor found that life had been extinct for several hours.
Alfred, from Tasmania, was well known throughout the Waikato and had resided in the district for nearly 20 years. He had been chairman of the Kakepuku Dairy Co, and in addition to his farming operations conducted a land agency. He formerly lived at Pirongia, running a butchery business, but during the war he negotiated many sales of farm property in the neighbourhood of Te Awamutu.
He then decided to live on his partly improved farm at Pokuru but continued his land agency business in Te Awamutu, travelling back and forth each day. He was on his way home when the fatality occurred. He had a wife, Rhoda, and several children. Tragically four years previously their youngest son, six-year-old Lloyd, had died. Now, the news of Alfred’s death came as a shock to his large circle of friends and acquaintances.
At the inquest the two Pokuru motorists who passed the car said they assumed the driver had temporarily left the vehicle. The night was very dark, and they would not have noticed the car at all but for the sound of the engine and the glaring headlights. Other wayfarers were believed to have also passed the car later, but that by that time the engine had stopped.
Dr Hall said Alfred had met his death by suffocation and heart failure; death probably being instantaneous. The coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.
Alfred was buried at Te Awamutu cemetery where his son was also buried.
Car on a country road in Waipa 1920s
