MOTORIST ACQUITTED CHARGE OF NEGLIGENT

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24801, 15 February 1946, Page 7

MOTORIST ACQUITTED CHARGE OF NEGLIGENT

DRIVING Leonard Anthony Schimanski (Mr E. S. Bowie), who was tried as reported above, was. arranged before' another jury and pleaded not guilty to a charge oi negligently driving a motor-vehicle so as to cause the death of Ellen Walford Bloom. The jury retired at 4.25 p.m. and returned at 6.10 p.m. with a verdict, of not guilty. Charles Bloom said he had been driving his motor-car back from Rangiora, and when near a culvert on the main road befdre the Styx traffic bridge, he saw another car coming towards him. The vehicle was travelling on its incorrect side of the road directly towards him. It swerved away from the witness’s vehicle, but struck the right front wheel. His accelerator Jammed and his brakes would not act. He was unconscious for a while. He later took his wife to hospital, but she was dead when they arrived there. A passenger in Bloom’s motor-car, Mungo Douglas Guthrie, said in evidence that the accused’s car had been on the wrong side of the road. Edward Joseph Mullin, who had travelled in a passenger bus behind Bloom’? motor-car, said Bloom's car appeared tc be on its correct side of the road. Afte’ the accident Bloorri’s vehicle had gon* over to the right and finished up with its radiator against a telegraph pol* While the witness was looking into the motoi-car he heard a gasp behind hin» and when he turned round he saw the accused, who had fainted. Cross-examined by Mr Bowie, the wit ness said the accused’s car appeared to be going at a reasonable speed, but hr could only judge by the headlights. Sergeant John Bainbridge Kearton said when cross-examined, that If a person saw the lights of a motor-car on the ramp of the Styx bridge at further than two chains the person would be on his incorrect side of the road. The police sergeant whp went to the scene of the accident, Edward Charles Taylor Broadley, stated that he had interviewed the accused, who made a statement in which he said that he was not the holder of a driving licence, but had driven his father’s motor-car and that had been used without' authority. Constable Donald Fraser Ross said he had examined both vehicles and had taken measurements at the scene of the accident. Bloom’s motor-car had its radiatoi damaged, and the right-hand front tyre had been torn off. A scrape mark on the road had been caused by the rim ©i the wheel of Bloom’s vehicle which had been buckled. The mark started about two feet from the centre of the roaduon Bloom’s correct side, and continued for 71 feet to the pole. Questioned by his Honour, the witness said that what he had seen was consistent with the evidence that Bloom had been on his correct side of the road when the impact occurred, but he admitted to Mr Bowie that there was a bare possibility that .the accused might have been on his jjorrect side and Bloom on the wrong. ,_p " ” Mr Bowie submitted that the negligence alleged was that the accused had been on the wrong side of the road, and the Crown had not established that. Witnesses had not been in. agreement, and he suggested that Bloom had been on his incorrect side of the road. It was dangerous to reconstruct an accident by what, happened afterwards, as vehicles often finished up in queer places, said his Honour. The accident was one mat should not have taken place as the bridge over the culvert was wide enough for two, vehicles. The accused had no great experience of driving, whereas Bloom was a man of 70 and held a driver’s licence. BREAKING AND ENTERING ALLEGED Geoffrey Willlath Fisher (Mr E. M. Hay) pleaded not guilty to a charge of breaking and entering the counting-house of Frederick William Stevens, and committing theft therein, and not guilty to stealing £ll7 16s 9d, the property of Stevens. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr A. T. Donnelly) said the charges arose from a theft from the Theatre Royal Cafe, in Gloucester street. Someone had broken into the office of the cafe and stolen the money from a safe, which had been broken open. The accused worked in the cafe as third cook, and the onlv real evidence against him was that of a scientific expert. Sawdust and alum crystals had been found on the floor of the office on the morning after the theft, continued Mr Donnelly. Both materials had been used in packing for the safe. When the accused was interviewed by the police it was noticed that sawdust and alum crystals were embedded in the soles of his shoes. An analytical chemist had compared the alum crystals from the shoes with those found on the floor, arid found /that 'they were identical. The trial was adjourned until to-day.