FATAL COLLISION WITH BUS

BARROW SCHOOLGIRL’S SAD END

A 13 years-old schoolgirl, described by neighbours as being happy and carefree and a perfect little mother to the other children, was fatally injured by a Barrow bus yesterday.

The girl, Nancy Wright, of 31, Beech-street, Barrow, was killed when her pedal cycle collided with a Corporation single deck bus in Oxford-street.

Apparently the bus, bound for the Town Hall, had stopped outside the Victoria Park Hotel to pick up passengers, and had just started to move off when the girl tried to pass it on her cycle. The front off-side mudguard of the vehicle struck her, and the driver of the bus, Robert Richardson, of 59, Walney-road, Barrow, pulled up in half-a-length.

The girl was found lying on her stomach under the front part of the bus, and the cycle, the rear part of which was badly damaged, was lying across her right leg.

The ambulance was summoned and the life-guards of the bus (Lower parts of the bodywork? – author) had to be broken to release her.

Dr. Waters, who was walking up Brighton-street when the accident happened, went to the scene and pronounced life extinct.

The deceased was well known in the Ormsgill area, and was the youngest of a family of six – three boys and three girls.

North Western Daily Mail (NWDM) Thursday 30 May 1940

The inquest took place the following day, and was reported in the NWDM Saturday 1st June 1940:

BUS DRIVER NOT TO BLAME

INQUEST ON BARROW GIRL CYCLIST

It was revealed at the inquest at Barrow yesterday afternoon that, although the bus driver did everything in his power to save her, Nancy Wright, 13 years-old schoolgirl of 31, Beech-street, Barrow, met her death through swerving suddenly on her bicycle into the path of a bus.

The accident occurred in Oxford-street on Wednesday afternoon, and in returning a verdict of ‘Accidentally killed’, the Deputy Officer for Furness (Mr. J. Poole) said that he found that the unfortunate girl lost her life through riding her pedal cycle immediately in front of the bus. ‘So far as the driver is concerned, I don’t think there is anything that the driver could possibly have done that could have avoided this accident.’ he said.
The evidence indicated that the girl, who was identified by her brother, John Henry Wright of 36, Pine-road, was riding her bicycle along Oxford-street towards Ainslie-street, in company with Vera Pilkington, also 13 years of age, of 53, Vulcan-road. A Corporation bus was in front of them and stopped near the Victoria Park Hotel to pick up passengers. When it started off again Nancy Wright went on to the right-hand side of the vehicle, and when she had just cleared its length, suddenly swerved to her left, right into its path.
The front off-side mudguard of the bus caught her bicycle and she was thrown to the ground and underneath the vehicle, the lifeguards on which had to be cut away before her body –which was lying near the front of the bus – could be removed. Dr. Waters, who in the vicinity, pronounced life extinct.

Robert Richardson, of 59, Walney-road, Barrow, driver of the single deck bus concerned, said that he pulled out to pass a stationary van in front of him. He was commencing to pull in to his left again when he saw a girl on a pedal cycle ‘cutting in front of me.’ The off-side front mudguard struck the bicycle and knocked the girl down. He jammed on his brakes right away and the bus had stopped and he was out of it in a matter of seconds. The brakes were good.

After the verdict had been returned, the Town Clerk (Mr. W. Lawrence Allen) expressed the sympathy of the Corporation and the driver with the dead girl’s relatives, and Chief Inspector Clarkson accorded the sympathy of the police.

North Western Daily Mail (NWDM). 1st June 1940