MOTOR FATALITY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17392, 1 March 1922, Page 6

MOTOR FATALITY.

DRIVER FOUND GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) NAPIER, February 28. In the Supreme Court to-day, before Mr Justice Reed and a jury, Morgan Davies was tried on a charge of manslaughter. The prosecution brought evidence to show that on November 2nd, the accused, while driving a motor-car at Karamu bridge, in the vicinity of Hastings, knocked down and killed a boy named Robert Frederick Allen. The accused did not stop at the time of the accident, and it was some days before the police were able to locate the driver of the car. *

In a statement to the police subsequent to the accident, Davies said that he had had considerable liquor, and he did not see the child till the car was almost on him. The shock of seeing the child down horrified him. He had only a hazy recollection of the affair, and did not know what made him keep driving on. It was some days beforte he realised the full meaning of the accident. No evidence was called for the defence. Counsel, addressing the jury, endeavouring to draw from the evidence the conclusion that the hoy was playing on the roadside with other boys, and went on to the track of the car suddenly, in a manner which made it impossible to avoid an accident. The jury, after deliberating for two hours, visited the scene of the accident, and later returned a verdict of guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy. Davies was remanded till to-morrow for sentence. '