LOSS OF A FOOT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 42, 19 February 1944, Page 6

LOSS OF A FOOT

CLAIM FOR £6062

ACCIDENT ON* BRIDGE

The hearing of the claim for £6062 damages brought by Stuart Twentyman, aged eight, and his father, Robert Cameron Twentyman, against Norman Owen, engineer, Point Chevalier, was continued in the Supreme Court yesterday before Mr. Justice Fair. The claim arose out of an accident on the Parakai bridge on December 30, 19-10, when the boy, then aged five, was knocked down by defendant's car, or trailer, which was attached, and received injuries which resulted in his left leg having to be amputated. Mr. Goldstine and Mr. Fortune represented the plaintiffs and Mr. North and Mr. Wallace the defendant. After evidence for the plaintiff had closed Mr. Wallace opened the defence and impressed upon the jury that they must not allow sympathy to play any part in arriving at a verdict, but must find according to the evidence. The defendant, Norman Owen, said he had been driving cars for 28 years and had not previously had an accident of any kind. At the time of the accident he was driving his car and haci a small trailer behind. Approaching the bridge he considered he was driving at not more than 20 miles an hour, and he did not see anybody on the bridge. He heard his wife, who was sitting alongside him in the car, scream, out, and glancing out of the window he saw a child's head. He swerved the car to the right and applied the brakes, and on getting out of the car saw the child lying behind the trailer. He took the child to the Ilelensville Hospital. Later the boy's parents exonerated witness for responsibility for the accident, and reprimanded the boy's sister for playing on the bridge.

The hearing was adjourned until Monday.