Arthur Harry Broadway

Arthur Harry Broadway died following an accident caused by a car that didn’t stop.

Arthur Broadway was a retired gardener and had lived in Moors Road, Colden Common.

He was found injured on the road after being knocked off his bicycle and taken to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital where he later died on 21 August 1951.

A chief petty officer who lived in Briarwood, Mill Road, Fareham, said that he had been driving along the Portsmouth to Winchester Road at about 4.45pm on 7 August 1951, about two car lengths behind another car when, about 100 yards on the Winchester side of the Old House at Home Inn at Colden Common he saw a car coming from the opposite direction and behind that another car. He said that the second car then appeared to try to overtake the first car, coming out and across the white line. He said that the car in front of him then veered to its left, mounted the grass verge, and then turned back onto the road. He said that he then braked but saw that his car was about to hit the one in front.

He said, 'I swerved to the off-side to avoid hitting it and as I did so I first saw the cyclist and swerved again to avoid hitting him'.

He said however, that although he avoided hitting Arthur Broadway with the front of his car, that his cycle scraped along the side of his car and that when he stopped he found his bicycle entangled  with his rear bumper. He said that his car finished up on the verge on the near side of the road facing in the direction from which he had been travelling.

He said that he had been unable to get the numbers of either of the cars that had been travelling towards him.

When he was cross-examined, he said that he had scraped through the gap between the car in front of him and the overtaking car and had not seen Arthur Broadway on his bicycle until he swerved.

A civil servant who lived in Highbury Grove in Cosham who had been driving the lead car travelling in the direction of Winchester at the time said that he was unaware that there was a car behind him and said that he first noticed the cars in front  of him travelling towards Portsmouth when they were about 50 yards away. He said that the second car then pulled out over the white line and went straight towards him and so he swerved to his left on to the grass verge and back onto the road and then stopped.

He said that until that time that he had not seen Arthur Broadway on his bicycle.

He said that the second car that had been following him then drew alongside him and that as it overtook, he saw Arthur Broadway fall on the opposite side of the road.

He said that the car that caused him to swerve did not stop.

At the inquest the coroner asked the man, 'Would you say the cause of your swerving to the left and on to the grass verge was the driver of that car?' and the civil servant said, 'Undoubtedly, sir'.

The coroner then noted to the jury that it could fairly be said that there had been a bit of a jumble between the four cars which had unfortunately caused the death of Arthur Broadway.

He said, 'Apparently the most powerful car had pulled out to pass the car in front, and the driver might or might not have been aware that there were cars coming in the opposite direction. It looks to me, at all events, that the primary cause of this occurrence was the driver of the big car who did not stop, although he may not have been aware that there was an accident. Although a great endeavour has been made by the police to trace him, and in fact a broadcast has been made, no-one has come forward'.

A verdict of accidental death was then returned with a rider that the driver of the car that Arthur Broadway had collided with was in no way to blame.