THE ISLAND RAY TRAGEDY.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20920, 29 July 1933, Page 9

THE ISLAND RAY TRAGEDY.

DRIVER OF CAR IN COURT. VKRDICT of NOT fiITLTY. ■I'EKSS AS.spiljV'tluV, TL'uKOnA.V.; V/ELLINGTON, July 23. Frederick Patrick Hooker, aged 23, thr driver of a molor-car which went over a bank at Island Bay in April, killing four members of a cabaret party, was charged to-day in the Supreme Court, with negligently driving a car thereby causing the deaths of James Henry Wood, his wife Marjorie Wood, Olga Barbedes. and Ernest Joseph Dickson. Evidence for the Crown was similar to that at the preliminary hearing. Opening the case for the Crown, Mn Macassey said it would be shown, prac- J treally on Hooker's own admission,, that he had no license to drive, that' he was an inexperienced dri%'er, and that he was unacquainted with the road. It was contended that the fact that the car went over the bank was not due to defective braking. Skid marks, 18ft long made by the back wheels were found on the road, showing that the wheels had locked. The submission of the Crown was that the accident was due to the incompetence and carelessness of Hooker and his want of knowledge of the road. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, and added a rider that in its opinion the corner should be better lighted and the regulation governing road worthiness of cars more strictly enforced.