South Yorkshire Times, January 9th, 1960
Sidecar Passenger Fatally Injured
At a Mexborough inquest on Monday, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death on a 34-years-old Brampton woman, Mrs. Ivy Tasker, of Wath Road, who was fatally injured in a road accident on October 31st.
The Doncaster District Coroner, Mr. H. W. Carlile, requested the police to bring to the notice of the local authority the question of lighting at the junction of Barnsley Road and Pontefract Road, Brampton, where the accident happened. Pc. P. Briggs, stationed at Wath, said the vehicles involved were a mobile shop driven by Clive Charlesworth of Bampton Road, Wombwell and a motor-cycle combination driven by William Arthur Eyre, Mellor Road, Wombwell. In reply to the Coroner, Pc. Briggs said that in his opinion the lighting at the junction was very good.
John Vincent Cutts, of Coronation Road, Hoyland, said he was waiting for a bus in Pontefract Road, and was not taking much notice, but both vehicles seemed to approach the junction at a reasonable speed.
Did Not See Turn
Greta Smith of Melton Street, Wombwell, who was standing with Cutts said that she was not aware of what lights the vehicles were showing. She did not see the mobile shop turn right into Pontefract Road and agreed with the coroner that if the driver had given a hand signal it was likely she would not have seen it.
Witness said that after the accident, Eyre said words to the effect that Mr. Charlesworth must hold himself responsible. Charlesworth said he did not see the combination coming.
Mrs. Edith Eyre said that she, her husband and the Taskers were returning from an evening out at West Melton. Mrs Tasker and herself were riding in the sidecar.
Coroner:” Were you sober when you left?”
Witness: “Most certainly”. She added that as they were travelling along Barnsley Road towards the crossroads, she and Mrs Tasker were talking about the children. The vehicle seemed to swerve to my side and my husband tried to swerve around him.
Mr. Frank Tasker, husband of the deceased, said that during the evening he and Mr. Eyre had drunk about four pints of bitter.
Coroner: “Were you merry or singing?”
Witness: “Not on that much, sir.”
Struck Rear End
He continued:” the first time I saw the other vehicle it was turning right. We swerved to miss it, but we struck the rear end.” He thought the lighting at the junction was poor in some places. The lighting on one stretch of the road was good, but inferior lighting on other sections caused a shadow to be cast.
The driver of the combination, William Arthur Eyre said he was about ten yards away from the crossroads when he saw Charlesworth’s vehicle. Witness said he was travelling at about 14 to 20 miles an hour and was showing both a headlight and sidecar light. Charlesworth’s vehicle was showing two sidelights. It could have been mistaken for two pedal cycles.”
Coroner: “Did you see him give any signal?”
Witness: “No Sir.”
Coroner: “When you first saw him, was he turning?”
Eyre: “He seemed to slip down as though he was acknowledging my signal. At the last moment he turned right across. I swerved to the right and hit his back end. He just seemed to come right across my path. I had not time to do anything.”
The driver of the mobile shop, Clive Charlesworth, self-employed, said that on that morning he had started work at about nine o’clock. He was returning home from work when the accident occurred. In reply to the Coroner, he said he “never got tired.”
Asked at what speed he was travelling, Charlesworth replied: “I had only just changed into third gear, and I was changing down again to go round the corner. I had not time to get any speed up.”
Charlesworth said that when he negotiated the crossroads, he was travelling at ten or fifteen miles an hour. “I saw the motor-cycle, but I did not recognise what sort of vehicle it was. I looked in my rear mirror and put my right hand out.” Witness added that when he began to make the turn the motorcycle seemed about 100 hundred yards away.
Coroner: “Did you consider that you had ample time to turn into Pontefract Road?”
Thought It Safe
Charlesworth: “I thought he was sufficiently far away for me to do it safely.”
Coroner: “You still maintain, do you, that you considered you had plenty of time to get clear of him?”
Witness: “I thought I had plenty of time.”
Coroner: The only point is whether you were justified in making a turn on a main road with another vehicle approaching.”
Witness: “I just made the turn confident there was nothing in the way.”
Addressing the jury, the Coroner said “You have heard from two independent witnesses that they were not taking much notice of what had occurred. It has been suggestion that the junction has black spots. The motor-cycle was travelling at a reasonable speed. Similarly, the mobile shop was travelling at a reasonable speed. It has been suggested that the motor-cycle was 100 yards away from the junction when the mobile shop started to turn. You may think that the responsibility for this accident is more likely to be placed on the shoulders of the mobile shop.”
“There seems to have been a misunderstanding, but there is not sufficient evidence to show that the driver of the shop is guilty of any criminal negligence.”