acid, a Coroner heard yesterday.

An inquest into the death of Warwick resident Otero Allers revealed how he was concerned he might have been suffering from prostate cancer at the time he took his life, despite test results saying he did not.

Mr. Allers was found by ambulance crews writhing in agony on a grass verge near Watford Bridge on June 17 last year.

He died hours later in hospital from total organ failure and internal bleeding caused by drinking the acid.

Coroner Will Francis yesterday ruled that Mr. Allers committed suicide after hearing evidence from Police officers, family members, doctors and friends.

Witness Kenneth Basden said he was driving across Watford Bridge when he saw a man "driving his car in an erratic manner with his head out of the window''.

Mr. Basden described how he turned around, managed to stop the other car and pulled Mr. Allers out onto the grass verge.

"He told me that he tried to kill himself,'' he recalled. "There was foam coming out of his mouth and his clothes were soaking, as if he'd been overboard to try and stop the burning.'' Registered nurse Timothy Bishop said, when he arrived at the scene he found Mr. Allers lying on a grass verge with a burnt mouth and "in such an agitated, restless state that he wouldn't remain still enough for me to administer pain treatment''.

"I asked him why he drank the acid but he wouldn't respond to my questions,'' he said. "He was obviously in severe pain.'' An autopsy revealed that Mr. Allers died from injuries, internal bleeding and shock caused by the 200 cubic centimetres of 40 percent hydrochloric acid that he ingested.

In the months before his death, Mr. Allers met with urologist Charles Dyer on several occasions, complaining that he was finding blood in his urine.

Yesterday, Dr. Dyer described how he arranged for the 45-year-old to undergo an operation to find out what was wrong, results of which came back with no evidence of what was causing his condition.

"It is also important to note that there were no signs of cancer either,'' Dr. Dyer explained.

But sister-in-law Noreen James, who received a message from Mr. Allers on her answering machine shortly before he died, testified that he said he thought that Dr. Dyer was "lying'' in telling him that he did not have prostate cancer.

"He said he wasn't feeling good,'' she recalled. "When he said that I knew something was wrong.'' After frantically trying to get hold of Mr. Allers at his work, Mrs. James received another call from him.

"He called out my name in distress and I told him that whatever it was, we could work it out.

"But he told me it was too late and that he'd already swallowed some acid at Lagoon Park.

Mrs. James said she then called the emergency services.

She added that Mr. Allers had not seemed his usual, lively self on the previous Sunday while at Southampton Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Life-long friend Paul Seymour said his conversation with Mr. Allers during the week before his death "made me think he was under a lot of emotional stress''.

"I thought he was being paranoid because he said he thought people at work were out to get him,'' he said.

But he added that, during the last conversation he had with Mr. Allers, "he didn't give any indication of what he was about to do''.

He described how his friend had expressed his concerns about his health in the months before and that he seemed "anxious''.

In making a ruling, Mr. Francis said: "`I find that Mr. Allers committed suicide by ingesting acid and causing total organ failure.'' "This is a tragic incident,'' he added. "We extend our deepest sympathies to the family as this was the untimely death of a man who was certainly a true asset to this community.''