" I should like to pay a very sincere tribute to the services and assistance given in this tragedy by Flight-Lieutenant Gee. He was of immediate assistance to Constable Hart, and but for his endeavours it seems certain that four more young persons would have lost their lives,” said Sergeant J. C. Hay at the inquest into the deaths of Gerald Livingstone Hewitt, aircraftsman of Harewood, aged 24. Shirley Stewart Magee, widow, of 19 Macmillan Avenue, aged 21 and Isabel Martin, single, of Mansfield Avenue, aged 20. Their bodies were recovered after a motor-car had plunged into the River Avon near the Fendalton Road bridge and Harper Avenue early on Sunday, March 9.  The Coroner ' (Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M.) returned a verdict that the three deceased met their deaths through asphyxiation caused when the car in which they were travelling left the road in Harper Avenue and plunged into and was overturned in the Avon River.

In delivering his verdict Mr Levvey also commended the gallant action of Flight-Lieutenant Gee to whom ho said the four survivors owed their lives. Constable G.. H. Hart was to be commended for the promptness with which he had readied the scene of the accident and called for assistance in the work of rescue."

[Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 100, 27 March 1941, Page 6]