TO STAND TRIAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 35, 21 November 1939, Page 2

TO STAND TRIAL

SEQUEL TO MOTOR FATALITY. CHARGE OF INTOXICATION. ■ . f ASHBURTON DRIVER ACCUSED. (Special to the “Guardian.”) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Tho death of an officer at tho Burnham Camp, Captain Andrew Henderson Maciver, when ho was knocked down by a horse-float on the Main South Road near Burnham on October 7, was the basis of a charge heard in tho Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The accused was Stanley Richardson, a motor driver, of Ashburton, who was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Ho was represented by Mr P. H, T. Alpers. The charge against Richardson was that while intoxicated in charge of a motor-truck by an act of omission in relation thereto, he caused the death of Maciver. He was further charged with being intoxicated in charge .of the vehicle. 1

Dr. W. G. Rich, a medical practitioner stationed at Burnham, described his visit to the scene of the accident, half a mile noi’th of the Burnham crossing, at 8.15 p.m. He had found Maciver being attended to by Major F. Cameron and Air Fulton. He had seen Richardson and had a conversation with him. Richardson had said he had been at the New Brighton trotting meeting and gave a noncommittal answer when asked what sort of a day he had had. The only conclusion Dr. Rich had made after the conversation was that Richardson was dull. Constable Peter Fallon, of Lincoln, said that in conversation with the accused at Burnham he could see that he was intoxicated and not fit to he in charge of a motor-car, and he had told him so. Witness said that the accused had admitted seeing the two pedestrians ahead just before striking them, and he said that instead of going to the left, Maciver moved to the right, and it was then too late. At the Police Station. Sergeant J. Crowley said that at 9,20 p.m. the accused had been brought into the Central Police Station by Constable Fallon. Witness said that the accused’s gait was unsteady, his speech thick, and his breath smelling strongly of liquor. The accused had admitted having four beers at New Brighton between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Accused had been put into a cell at 10.5 p.m. after a medical examination. At 11 p.m. he was asleep, witness said. Dr. F. L. Scott said he examined the accused at the Christchurch Police Station. His eyes were slightly inflamed. He said he had had four beers, one after the other, at the end of the races at New Brighton, between 4 and 5 p.m. His speech was slightly thick. He walked along the passage fairly well and the “finger-to-finger” test was fair. There was a.strong smell of liquor on his breath. Witness’s opinion was that it was a borderline case with the doubt against accused. He considered that witness was not fit to drive a motor car, and witness would not have cared to be a passenger in a car driven by him. Asked if he wished to see another doctor, witness said he did not think it was- worth while. Major Frederick Cameron, principal medical officer at the Burnham Camp, who was called to the accident, said that neither of the two officers injured i:i the accident showed any trace of having had liquor. Evidence of Passenger. Sydney Keith Aldridge, a stablehand, said that.at Rolleston. when he was in the back of the horse»float, lie saw no one get out of the front of the vehicle.

When Sub-Inspector'W. E, Packer produced a statement made by witness at Ashburton, witness said it was correct, and then admitted having seen three men leave the front of the truck and go into the hotel for 15 minutes. Four members of one family—lrene Dillon, James* Dillon, and their twjo young children—gave evidence of seeing the tp'uck at Rolleston, near the hotel.

David Bennett, a horse-trainer, who said he was in the front seat from New Brighton as far as Templeton, said he noticed nothing unusual about the driver.

James Banbury Clive Geere-Watson, who was walking with Maciver when they were struck by the horse-float, said 1 that both Maciver amd himself were walking on the shingle off the bitumen. It was their invariable practice., he said, to edge .further away from the bitumen when they heard traffic approaching. He detailed the injuries lie ’had received. The adjutant at the Burnham Camp, Captain Eric Elliott Lloyd, said that he was called from the camp to the scene of the accident. The accused told him that the- two men his vehicle had struck bad. suddenly appeared in front of him. He had tried" to swerve but it was too late. Accused was nervous and his speech was thick and slow. At the time accused made the statement, witness did not think he was in a. fit state to he in charge of a motor vehicle. Albert Roderick Bartlett, of Ashburton, who was a passenger in the horsefloat, said that when the truck stopped at the Rolleston Hotel, witness and another man tried to get in the hotel but a woman who- came to the door refused to let them in. The driver of the truck then, came- over to witness and the other man and got them to go hack to the truck, which drove, off. Richardson then appeared quite sober. The lights were burning. The' speed of the. truck was between 25 and 30 miles an hour.. The lights had been dipped to pass another car, and as they were turned up again two men appeared in view, about six or seven yards in, front. s ’ *

They were walking, said Bartlett, between the centre and the edge, of the bitumen. The truck, which was braked slowly, went perhaps 30 or 40 yards down the road after striking the man on the outside, ' before it was pulled up. From when they left

Rolleston until Burnham was reached, no bottles were handed round in the truck of the cab, and witness knew nothing of a broken bottle being found near tlie scene of the accident. . Witness said he told the. police at Ashburton that “for personal reasons” he would not make a,'statement.- The constable had told him that whetheror not he made a statement would have no hearing on the necessity of. giving evidence in Court.... . After further police evidence had been called, the accused was committed for trial. He pleaded not guilty. , Verdict at the Inquest. The inquest into the death of Andrew Henderson Maciver was heard after the hearing in the Magistrate’s Court of the charges against Richardson. A verdict was returned by the Coroner (M,r E. O. Le'vvey) that- death was due to concussion of the brain, caused when he was struck from behind by a motor-truck driven by Richardson on the Main South Road on October 7.