South Yorkshire Times – Friday 10 August 1934
Cut the Corner
Denaby Motor-Cyclist Killed
Crash Into ’Bus
Mr. Wm. Bagshaw, Doncaster Borough Coroner, held an inquest on Wednesday concerning the death of George Edward Cooper (24), miner, 51, Barnburgh Street, Denaby, who died on Sunday afternoon at the Doncaster Royal Infirmary from a fractured skull sustained earlier in the day when riding his motor-cycle at Hatfield Woodhouse, where he collided with a bus. The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death.”
The Coroner explained that deceased left home on a motor-cycle to go with some friends to Crowle for a fishing week-end. When he arrived at Denaby in order to make up a party, Sherrington o’clock he was riding along the Scunthorpe road towards Doncaster, and at a bend in the road at Hatfield Woodhouse he came into collision with a bus travelling in the opposite direction. He was badly injured and was taken to the Infirmary, where he never regained consciousness.
After a brother had given evidence of identification, Mrs. Ada Locking, widow, of Denby Dale, a passenger in the bus (which was going to Cleethorpes) said she saw one cyclist come round the bend in the road, and he passed them all right. Deceased followed, apparently trying to cut the corner, and crashed into the bus. The bus was travelling very slowly at the time and was pulled up immediately after the accident. The driver could not have done anything to avoid the collision. She thought deceased lost his nerve.
Chas. Siddons, an ice-cream dealer, of Cooper Street, Doncaster, who was following the bus, put its speed down at 10 miles an hour. He did not attach any blame to the driver of the bus. He attributed the accident to the deceased taking the corner too fast.
The driver of the bus, Thomas Edward Peacock, Peel Street, Horbury, Wakefield, said he knew that part of the road quite well. He saw deceased just on the bend, about 20 yards away. He realised at the time that deceased was travelling too fast. Witness pulled up on the grass verge. The deceased did not try to do anything to avoid the accident.