Coroner

An Otematata man made a bad decision to drive after drinking then the fatal mistake of not wearing his seat belt before his car crashed into the Otematata River bridge, Otago-Southland coroner David Crerar said yesterday.

Construction worker Ricky Low's death should be used by the industry as an example of the "very real dangers" of diverting from and failing to follow appropriate safety plans, Otago-Southland coroner David Crerar says.

People in small boats should wear life jackets at all times, Otago-Southland coroner David Crerar says.

A coronial inquest into the deaths of 29 men after the Pike River Coal mine explosion will begin in Greymouth tomorrow.

The devastating blistering skin reaction seen in a 74-year-old woman who died in Dunedin Hospital in 2008 was extremely rare, internal medicine specialist Dr Andrew Bowers says.

The mother of three-month-old twins Chris and Cru Kahui did not want her brother to speak to police after their deaths, he told an inquest today.

A mother who took a drunken Auckland school pupil home from a party told an inquest today that he was dead when she checked on him in the morning.

Society should consider adopting the idea of a 'sober companion' in the same way as appointing a sober driver," Coroner David Crerar said at the inquest in Queenstown yesterday into the death of a young Cromwell man, who drowned in Lake Te Anau on August 1, 2009, following alcohol-fuelled late-night antics.

Coronet Peak should enhance its avalanche hazard signage and fencing in the upper Greengates area, following the death of Queenstown snowboarder Ryan Manu Campbell in an avalanche outside the ski area boundary almost a year ago.

A coroner has recommended ways to improve the way St John and Police communications deal with emergency calls in the wake of delays and errors made when a man died during last year's Motatapu Icebreaker mountain bike event.

The death of a Te Anau man from carbon monoxide poisoning last year serves as a warning of the dangers of using gas burners in enclosed areas, Coroner David Crerar says.

The inquest into the death of a Korean tourist in July last year prompted Coroner David Crerar to warn the public about the danger of driving in winter conditions. Police said she might have survived if she had been wearing the fitted seat belt.

Department of Conservation staff were powerless when tourists chose to endanger themselves by deliberately flouting warning signs, the Coroner's Court in Greymouth was told today.