Florence Megginson

Florence Megginson was knocked down on the night of 18 August 1948 as she was cycling along a road by a car that afterwards drove off.

She was knocked down on the Beverley Road in Hessle at the junction of Boothferry Road.

An open verdict was returned.

Florence Megginson had been out to visit her younger brother at 56 Sunningdale Road in Hessle on the night of 18 August 1948 and had left to return home at about 10.15pm. Just before she left, in the presence of her brother, she examined both of her cycle lamps which worked off a dynamo.

A man that saw the accident said that he had been standing on the footpath at the corner of the crossroads when he saw a cyclist, Florence Megginson, approaching the traffic island. He said that she was riding slowly, which reduced the action of the dynamo, and so her bicycle did not appear to have very good lighting. He said that she then turned towards Hull and came into the full lighting of the streetlamps. He said then that a vehicle going down the main road from North Ferriby just missed colliding with her which he said apparently unbalanced her, causing her to wobble near the middle of the road. He said that then a second car came along and the front offside mudguard appeared to strike the front wheel of her bicycle and she was thrown into the road.

The man said that the motorcar slowed up and appeared to be going towards the kerb, and that as he himself was going to the assistance of Florence Megginson he said he saw the motorist stop and get out, but that after he had asked someone to send for an ambulance he looked up and noticed that the car had disappeared.

The man described the car as a low-bodied saloon car and said that it had been travelling about 15 yards behind the first car.

The man said that it was his contention that when the motorist had got out of his car and had seen him moving the bicycle out of the road that he had assumed that no one had been badly hurt and had driven off.

The police said that they had made extensive enquiries but had been unable to trace the motorist. They said that Florence Megginson's bicycle was undamaged and that there was only a slight scrubmark on the near side of her rear mudguard.

At her inquest, the coroner said that a motorist who knocked down a pedestrian or cyclist was under two obligations, firstly to give information to the police, and secondly, the moral obligation to give some assistance to the injured person. He said, 'It is a very reprehensible practice for a motorist to knock a person down and then go away. Fortunately, it isn't often done, but it has been done in this area'.

Florence Megginson had been a spinster and had lived at 8 Goddard Avenue in Hull.