Timaru Herald 17 August 1867

Shocking Accident - Mr William Gregson, Waimate

Deceased was a carter residing in Waimate, and left Timaru with his dray and horses on Wednesday evening, but before reaching the Salt Water Creek, he fell under the dray and was killed. The following is the evidence given at the inquest:-

Peter Angus Swinson deposed:
I am carter. I have seen the body of the deceased. I don't know the body, not having seen the deceased before the day of the accident. A stranger asked me to drive a four horse dray to Salt Water Creek. I did so.
The deceased got on the load on the dray opposite the Timaru Hotel. He rolled up the tarpaulin around him, and sat up on top of the load between the shafts. He rode all the way until the dray got down the hill on to the level of the road near this hotel. There were no reins on the horses.
I was driving walking alongside the horses. I saw deceased roll down between the shafts, and he sung out to stop the horses. I stopped the as soon as I could. Before I could stop them the offside of the wheel ran over the deceasedıs head across his mouth. I could not see his head for it was rolled up in the tarpaulin.
I ran and felt his head and hand. I started off to Mr Fitch and Mr Driller. We carried out a chair and brought him into this house in it. He never spoke. He was alive when he came in. I left to put the horses up and was away about twenty minutes, when I returned he was dead.
I took no notice of his head, except that his mouth was full of blood, and there was blood in the ear. There was also blood on the tarpaulin, on that portion which was caught in the wheel before deceased fell. He was sitting up all the way talking to me. There was no other person with us.

Samuel Driller deposed:
I keep a refreshment house. I was living here on Wednesday evening at the time of the accident. About half past six or seven in the evening I heard someone come in and say Mr Gregson had fallen from his dray, but they did not know if he was hurt.
I went with Mr Fitch to the spot where deceased was lying, about one hundred yards towards Timaru. I saw him under a dray, wrapped in a tarpaulin, he was lying on his left side. I saw the blood running from his mouth, and by his breathing he seemed to be choking through the blood running down his throat.
It was a little light, though it was raining. I examined the wheel track. His head was a few inches inside the track. I could not see if it had been run over, but I thought it had by the blood. We carried him in a chair but I never heard him speak. His eye never moved. It was about a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes from the time we got him into the house to when he drew his last breath. I have known the deceased for about three years. The body I have seen is the body of William Gregson. I should think he is about fifty years of age.
The doctor was sent for, and was here about ten minutes after deceased drew his last breath. The last witness was not drunk, though I thought he had taken a little drink, but he was quite sensible and capable of driving a team, he helped to carry the deceased into the house.

Charles Robertson, in his evidence, deposed:
I am a labourer in the employ of Mr Fitch. I remember last Wednesday evening. I had been in the house about five minutes when the first witness came and told Mr Fitch that a man had fallen off a dray. Mr Fitch came about five minutes after and told me that Mr Gregson had fallen off the dray and was supposed to be killed. Mr Fitch got a horse and went for the doctor.
I went to the body, which was lying about two hundred yards from here on the road to Timaru. The deceased was lying on the road about two feet from the off wheel of the loaded dray. The deceased was breathing hard. Mr Driller came up with a chair when we put him into it.
I saw blood coming from his mouth. We carried him into the house and laid him on a sofa, and about fifteen or twenty minutes afterwards he breathed his last. There was a mark of blood from his ear to his mouth. I could not tell by the track whether the wheel had gone over his head. His head was a few inches from the track. Deceased never made the slightest motion from the time I saw him till he died.

By Foreman: Deceased was lying on his left side with the tarpaulin partly over him. His body was lying right across the road, his feet near one wheel.

Mr PA Swinson having been recalled said: When I supposed the wheel went over deceased's head, I heard a noise like a crushing; it was going over a stone, but that was impossible, for there were no stones near. It was immediately after he called out. I was walking alongside the body of the horse at the time.
As soon as I stopped the horses I ran around and lifted his head. I might have moved his head a little off the track when I put it down again, for I was so frightened. The horses did not kick him. I was not in his company long previous to starting from Timaru.
He was much the worse for liquor. He was talking about horses until he came to the last hill. I believe he was asleep when he fell.

The jury returned a verdict of "accidental death caused through deceased falling off a dray and the wheel passing over his head.

William and Ann Grigson in 1860 owned a section parallel to High Street from Queen Street, to Butcher's Lane

Thanks to Jeni Simpson for this


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