Reporter, Thursday
23rd February, 1967
Page 2
Dog pulled on leash and man was hit by car
A verdict of accidental death was returned at an inquest at Wigan last week on a 68-years-old Up Holland labourer, John Jennings, of College Road, who received multiple fractures of the skull and haemorrhage as the result of a car accident in 20th January.
The inquest heard that while approaching a main road after taking his terrier dog for a walk, Mr. Jennings was hit by a passing car after the dog pulled on the leash and ran into the path of the vehicle.
It was stated that Mr. Jennings had the leash looped round his wrist, and later it was found broken off at the collar.
Alan Vincent Green, Rose Crescent, Skelmersdale, one of three passengers in the car involved in the accident, said that as they were travelling along College Road their speed was between 25 and 28 m.p.h.
As they approached a side road on their left they saw Mr. Jennings come from the side road.
"The dog pulled on the leash and ran into the path of the car."
The next thing he knew, the windscreen had shattered in his face, added Mr. Green.
Cross-examined, he said Mr. Jennings could not let go of the leash because it was tied round his wrist.
In a statement to the police, the driver of the car, William Ellis Simms (aged 35), Palm Court, Skelmersdale, said his speed was between 28 and 30 m.p.h.
He was driving with sidelights on and as he approached the junction he saw the dog and the man. He saw the dog pull on the leash and he started to pull out into the crown of the road and applied his brakes.
"The dog seemed to pull him into the road and then the windscreen broke," the statement added, "I thought I had hit the dog, I got out of the car and saw the dog. Further along I saw the man lying in ther Road."
Cross-examined, Simms said that previously that night he had been with friends to the Alexandra Hotel, Skelmersdale, where he had drunk two pints of mixed beer.
