“HIT AND RUN DRIVER”

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23080, 24 July 1940, Page 4

“HIT AND RUN DRIVER”

INSURANCE MAN

FOUND GUILTY

CYCLIST INJURED AT

HORNBY

Carl Edward Jerman, an insurance superintendent, was found guilty in the Supreme Court yesterday of failing to stop after a collision between his car and Bernard Lewis Blackwell, a cyclist, on the Main South road, hear Hornby, on April 7. Blackwell suffered injuries which confined him to hospital for two days. The jury found Jerman guilty after a retirement of five hours. His Honour Mr Justice Northcroft presided. Mr C. S. Thomas appeared' for Jerman and Mr A. T. Donnelly prosecuted for the Crown. Mr Donnelly said this was one of four “hit and run driver” cases in the present sessions. Blackwell had been knocked off his bicycle by a car between 6.30 and 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 7, on the Main South road near the Hornby post office. Accused admitted his car could have been oh the scene at the time. His car was similar in colour to one described by witnesses as being _ the scene of the accident. Its registered number was 52469. A witness said the number of a car that passed him just after the accident began with 52, and that he thought. the last number was eight. Witnesses said that when they saw Jerman’s car on the Saturday and Sunday at Ashburton it was undamaged, but that on the day after it had a dent on the right front mudguard. Jerman took his car to have a dent taken out on April 9, and on April 10 made conflicting statements to the police. Dr. Lindsay McDougall described injuries received by Blackwell, who was brought to the Christchurch Hospital about 7.25 p.m. on April 27. Blackwell’s injuries were not extensive or serious.

Bernard Lewis Blackwell said he had left Christchurch at 6.10 p.m. on the evening of April 7 to return to Templeton on his bicycle. At Hornby he was cycling on his correct side of the road. The time was about 6.40, and it was getting dark. He had no light on his bicycle. There was an approaching chain of cars. One of these swung out to overtake other traffic, and struck him as he swung away to the gutter to avoid it. The car had no lights, and was travelling fairly fast. It was a late model car. After he was struck he did not remember anything. Kenneth McKay said that on April 7 he was walking on the Main South road at Hornby at about 6.40. He heard a crash, and found Blackwell lying by the side of the road. Number of Car Marijan Yugovich, restaurant proprietor, said that when driving on the Main South road on April 7 he heard a crash, and a car passed him, and as soon as it passed it put its lights out. He tried to read its number, but could .pick only the first two figures, 52, and the last, eight. The colour was fawn. Alfred Jary, stock agent, of Ashburton, said that Jerman visited his house at Ashburton on April 6. When he saw Jerman’s car on that day the mudguards were undamaged. On Monday he saw the car again, and the right-hand front mudguard was dented. This dent had not been there on the Saturday. , , . . ~ Edith Jary, a schpol teacher, said she drove Jerman's car ■on the afternoon of Sunday,. April 7, and then noticed no damage to the mudguard. When Jerman returned from Christchurch later that evening, she spoke to him in his car about 9.45 p.m. She had then noticed no damage. Alfred James Jary, a motor mechanic, said Jerman’s car was a late model Dodge in. a fawny-grey colour. On April 6 witness reversed the car out of his father’s drive, and he saw no damage to it. He saw it again on the Sunday about 4 p.m;, but observed no damage. On April Bhe saw it again about 10 a.m., his attention being attracted by a big dent in the right front mudguard. George Malcolm Connor, a steel welder employed by Motor Assemblies.. Ltd., said that on April 9 he repaired and repainted a dent 9in long and 4J inches wide in the right front mudguard of Jerman’s car. Jerman brought the car in about midday and wanted the job done that afternoon. Alan Arthur Boon, manager of Motor Assemblies, Ltd., produced samples of material painted the same colour as Jerman’s car and painted fawn.

Constable Thomas Harris, of Ashburton, said that at 10.15 a.m. on April 8 he saw Jerman in his car at Ashburton. The front right-hand mudguard was damaged. Interviewed by Police

Constable James Alexander Phillips, of Christchurch, said he interviewed Jerman on April 10 and was taken to see the car. The front mudguard had been damaged. Accused said the last repairs to the car had been done about a fortnight before when he ran into a telegraph pole. Asked later if there had been anything since then, accused had said that the day before he had taken the car to have a dent removed. This dent had been received when he hit a gatepost at the entrance to the residence of a client in the Ashburton district. Jerman could not remember the name of this client or exactly where he lived. , , , , Witness added that he had checked up on the owners of large cars whose registration numbers began with 52 and ended with 8. He had omitted the small cars, but had checked all the , others. To Mr Thomas, witness said there would be 1000 cars whose numbers began with 52, and 100 beginning with 52 and ending with 8. The 52 was a Christchurch district designation. Mr Thomas said practically the whole Crown case was built up on evidence that the car had no marks on it on the Saturday and had marks on the Monday. Two new witnesses, how- , ever, would describe damage they observed on the right front mudguard of Jerman’s car two days before the accident happened. Leslie Albert Chester Gordon, an insurance inspector, said that after a , meeting of the field staff of the T. and G. Insurance Company on Friday, April 5, he had passed close to Jerman’s car in the yard of the building, and noticed a small dent in the right front mudguard. Harold Victor Sharp, an insurance superintendent, said that his attention was drawn to the dent on the mudguard of the car on April 5, and that he then remarked On it to Jerman, who replied that he had hit a post. Freouently, when canvassing, Jerman would be likely to go into places where he did not know the name of the man he was going to see. Mr Thomas, in his address to the jury, said the case resolved itself into a question of identity. Evidently the car which hit Blackwell was not the car which Yugovich saw. Blackwell said the car had no lights when it came out and hit him, yet the car which passed Yugovich after the crash had its lights on, although it put them put immediately after. Then again, Yugovich said quite clearly that the last number was 8. ' Yet the last number of Jerman’s car was 9. The 52 beginning was a ! Christchurch district number. There was a discrepancy in the description of the damage to the mud'* guard. The Ashburton witnesses said they had observed no damage on Saturday or Sunday, yet two other witnesses said they saw the damage on the Friday, If the damage was there on the Friday the case against Jerman "must fail. Jerman’s account of the styay the mudguard was damaged was quite reasonable for a man whose bust-

His Honour said the most important point was the damage to the mudguard, which the Crown said was not there before the accident, and which the defence said was there two days before. The jury retired at 3.30 p.m. and returned at 8.30 p,m., finding Jerman guilty. Jerman was remanded for sentence, .A.,: