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Noel Mellors

Age: 19

Sex: male

Date: 24 Jan 1962

Place: Kneesall, Newark

Bryan Jackson and Noel Mellors died in a car crash.

The Vauxhall Velox car they were in had gone off the road at Kneesall on 24 January 1962 and demolished a telegraph pole.

An open verdict was returned, with the Coroner noting that the verdict implied at least some thread of negligence.

They had been rear seat passengers in a car driven by a 32-year-old man that lived in Charles Street, Newark.

The man appeared at the inquest, along with another man that had been in the car, both of them on crutches, but neither of them could remember anything about the accident.

A police constable that examined the car after the crash said that it appeared to have been properly serviced and that if driven properly, there was nothing to account for it suddenly leaving the road.

When the Coroner addressed the jury, he told them that it was on that evidence that they had to discharge their duty of returning a verdict. He added:

For lack of evidence or otherwise, there is nothing to justify your charging the driver with a serious offence. Did an accident happen? What did happen? Did a tyre burst? Did the driver momentarily doze? He can't remember himself, he was unconscious after the accident. Yet an open verdict by its nature must imply at least some thread of negligence.

The jury then returned an open verdict, owing to lack of evidence.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Newark Advertiser - Wednesday 11 July 1962