£3,616 Damages for Cyclist's Widow
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AS a result of an action against Sheffield United Tours, Ltd., and one of their drivers, Harold Eastwood, Holme Lane, Malin Bridge, Sheffield, damages of £3,616 were awarded last week to Mrs, Lily Sheen, whose husband, Edwin Sheen, aged 45, was killed when his motorized cycle was in collision with a coach.
Mr. W. L. Mars-Jones, Q.C., for Mrs. Sheen, said that the accident happened because the coach failed to give precedence to the cyclist travelling along a main road. Mr. Thomas Edward Fitzpatrick, Rhyl, a driving instructor, said that the coach came straight out and catapulted the cyclist into the road. Considering it was a road junction, the speed of the coach was high. He estimated it at ,20 m.p.h.
The driver said that he was leaving a coach park and travelling at 15 m.p.h. He slowed down almost to a standstill at the junction, and after seeing the road was clear, crossed at about 5 m.p.h.
Commissioner Fenton Atkinson, Q.C., said that Eastwood had been "plainly negligent," had totally failed to keep a look-out, and came out of the side road too fast. The dead man, too, should have kept a more careful look-out. He found the coach driver 75 per cent, and the dead man 25 per cent, to blame. Of the damages. £800 were apportioned to a seven-year-old daughter.