OLD MAN'S DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 106, 6 May 1936, Page 8

OLD MAN'S DEATH.

MOTORIST ON TRIAL

WAS LOOK-OUT ADEQUATE?

TWENTY CROWN WITNESSES

A fatal accident at the intersection of Manukau Road and Great South Road about 8.30 on the night of Sunday, February 23, last, when an old man, John William Beeston, was knocked down by a motor car, led to John Reginald Smith being charged in the Supreme Court to-day with negligent driving, causing death. The case was heard before Mr. Justice Fair and a jury. Mr. V. E. Meredith prosecuted, and Messrs. R. A. Singer and Bryce Hart appeared for the accused. Mr. Meredith said Beeston was an old man and an inmate of the Salvation Army Home at Epsom. On the night of the accident, a Sunday, Beeston was returning from a service at Newmarket and was croating the road at the. intersection when he was knocked down and fatally injured. Witnesses would estimate the speed of the car at 30 miles an hour. The accused had stated that he did not see Beeston until lie was about four feet from him. Beeston was carried about 24 feet by the car and sustained a fractured skull and 16 broken ribs and did not BUrviva the accident long. Stopped 250 Yards Away. Mr. Meredith said the accused did not pull up straight away after the accident. Two young men who saw the accident followed the car until it stopped 250 yards up the road. The car, it would be alleged, stopped then because of mechanical trouble, the mpact having caused a hole in the radiator through which the water penetrated to the electrical equipment. It was clear that Smith knew that he had struck a pedestrian and it would be expected that he would stop immediately, said Mr. Meredith. Counsel went on to state that Smith asked permission to use a telephone in the building outside of whtch the car stopped. He was told that there was a 'phone ■next door. Whether he understood or not Smith went to a telephone at the corner of Market Road, fully half a mile away, and there rang an ambulance. Smith did not go back to the scene of the accident, but went to a garage near Omahu Road and proceeded to Ellerslie to get a man with a van. as Smith said, to drive him to the police. At no staue did Smith go back to the scene of the accident.

Issue For Jury. Smith, Mr. Meredith said, pot in touch with a solicitor and went to the police station about 11.30 p.m. There was no suggestion of insobriety, or that the car was out of order. The jury had "simply to decide whether an adequate look-out had been kept by Smith on a well-lii road. Over 20 witnesses are being; called fo r the Crown, and the hearing is r.ot likely to end before to-morrow evening. (Proceeding.)