South Yorkshire Times August 13, 1966
Car Drove Off After Hitting Conisbrough Man
A car which hit a 52 years old Conisbrough man as he crossed a badly lit section of Doncaster Road Conisbrough, stopped momentarily and then drove off, a Conisbrough inquest jury was told on Tuesday.
The jury at the resumed inquest on Mr Charles Henry Ashley, of Windmill Cottage, Windmill Avenue, Conisbrough, a bricklayer, returned a verdict of “Accidental Death.”
The Doncaster district coroner, Mr KD Potter, said, “it is shocking to learn that someone should be knocked down and that the driver of the vehicle must have known something was amiss yet did not stop. One cannot condemn this sort of behaviour too strongly.
“The driver of the car could have been left in no doubt that something had gone wrong, otherwise he would not have slowed down.
“The general lighting there was merely by gas and some of these lamps were not late that night. The lighting leaves a great deal to be desired and I will press for improvement,” he added.
Mr Robert Ottway, 44 Windmill Avenue, Conisbrough, a boiler operator, said that at about 11 PM on July 9 he was standing on Doncaster Road opposite the junction with Crookhill Road, a point which was badly lit.
“I took about four steps into the road and saw a car coming very fast from the Doncaster direction. I stepped back onto the pavement and about 20 or 30 yards further on heard a bump and saw a shower of sparks.
“I ran across the road and found Charlie lying on the road with his legs on the pavement. The car started to slow at the junction with Highfield Road, the passenger door opened and someone got out and got straight in again. Then the car drove off in the direction of Rotherham.
Hillman Minx
“it looked like an Hillman minx and had a blue top and cream body,” he added.
Mr Kenneth Dale, a colliery stone contractor, Windmill Avenue, said that after his neighbour Mr A Ogly had said that the car had hit someone, he saw the car “tearing down the road, going much faster than the 30 miles an hour limit.”
He added, “It was very dark, though the night was fine. Of the five gas lamps on Doncaster Road, only two were lit.”
Mr GD Powell, pathologist, said that death was due to shock and haemorrhaging as a result of the injuries. The dead man had fractured several lower ribs, had a puncture of the chest cavity and a fractured pelvis.
PC Maurice Jackson said that after a motorist that shouted to him that there had been an accident, he went up to the scene. A little further down the road there was glass and metal from a car headlights scattered about.
Attempts to trace the vehicle on radio, TV and in the press had so far failed.