The court heard the last proof of life was a phone call Potter had made to a friend on the afternoon of December 30, 2022.
“This evidence does point towards the possibility that Mr Potter had become locked in his vehicle immediately before his death. The knocking sound heard by the neighbour over the night of December 30 may have been noises made by Mr Potter seeking to extract himself from the vehicle,” the coroner said.
Meteorological data shows New Year’s Eve 2021 was one of the hottest days of the year in the Hawke’s Bay.
“I accept that excessive heat and/or stress may be relevant factors in his death,” the coroner said.
However, Coroner Schirnack said the evidence supporting this theory was inconclusive.
“Drawing the pathological and scene evidence together, I am not satisfied that heat and/or anxiety, prompted by being locked inside his car, played a role in his death. While they remain distinct possibilities, he may have also experienced neither. He may have suffered the fatal cardiac event without perceiving that he was trapped and/or becoming overwhelmed by heat,” Schirnack said.
“In the absence of a sufficiently clear link between his death and the vehicle’s locked state, I take this line of inquiry no further.”
No formal comments or recommendations were issued as a result of the death.
Clyde Potter’s sister Janice Rhodes with his Innovators Award from the NZ Restaurant Association and lifetime membership certificate from Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Market. Photo / Warren Buckland
Potter’s sister Janice Rhodes had earlier urged the coroner to investigate the death and said she was disappointed in the lack of a firm conclusion.
“Unfortunately it’s now all done and dusted, so to speak,” she said.
She said she was unaware of her brother’s coronary problems, and that Potter had not trusted GPs.
Rhodes said it should be incumbent on car manufacturers and automotive dealers to draw attention to emergency exit procedures, particularly in modern vehicles where electrical problems or power loss can disable automatic locking and unlocking buttons.
“That’s where I feel an agent should do a bit more due diligence and point this fact out that this can happen with them,” she said.
The Kia Niro’s 711-page manual advises drivers – on page 161 – in emergencies to fold down the rear seats and activate a manual boot release and then exit through the rear.
Potter was born in Auckland in 1950, but became a Hawke’s Bay fixture after moving to the region in 1972.
He started The Chef’s Garden, a 20ha farm that supplied a range of organic vegetables to local restaurants.
Coroner Schirnack extended his condolences to Potter’s family and community.
Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.
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