CHARGE AGAINST MOTORIST

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25242, 22 July 1947, Page 4

CHARGE AGAINST MOTORIST

DEATH OF BOY AT NEW BRIGHTON

FOURTEEN WITNESSES CALLED

Norman Cyril Alwyn Muirson, aged 30. a joinery manufacturer, of 19 Ottawa road, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday before Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M., on a charge of being found in a state of intoxication while in charge of a motor-car in Seaview road, New Brighton, on June 28; and that., while in a state of intoxication while in charge of a motor-car, by an act or omission, he caused the death of Richard Edward For-

The inquest into the death of Richard Edward Forward, aged 14, was held contemporaneously with the charges. Senior-Sergeant G. H. L. Holt prosecuted. Mr W. R. Lascelles appeared for Muirson and Mr J. D. Hutchison for the father of Richard Forward.

Senior-Sergeant Holt said that about 7.10 p.m. on June 28 Muirson was driving a car east along Seaview road. The night was dark and there had been rain. Muirson overtook and ran down the boy Forward and carried him some way on the bonnet of the car. Forward was riding on the outside of another cyclist and one of the cycles at least was lighted. Dr. A. B. Pearson, pathologist at the Christchurch Public Hospital, said that he carried out a post-mortem examination on Richard Forward and found the cause of death to be shock resulting from injuries to the brain. Dr. W. T. Glasgow said he examined accused at the New Brighton police station about 7.30 p.m. on June 28, and came to the conclusion he was not fit to drive a car. He would not say accused was drunk in the accepted sense of the word. He could walk quite steadily and went through various actions normally. His speech was slurred and his breath smelled fairly strongly of liquor, although one beer could do that. He certified accused as unfit to drive because of his general attitude. Accused’s having consumed alcohol had something to do with his inability to drive a motor-car. Effect of Certificate Mr Lascelles: The effect of your certificate appears to be that Muirson was not intoxicated, but he was not fit to drive a car? Dr. Glasgow: Yes, except that I must say “intoxicated” is a relative term. Would you agree that, in accepted medical theory, the • normal development in the first stage of intoxication is a stimulus to excitement?—Yes. The accused did not exhibit any excitability?—At one stage he did. You say his general manner was quiet? —Yes, and wary. You found he could walk along the passage and turn correctly?—Yes. His finger test and picking up things from the floor were good?—Yes. The fact that a man has been involved in an accident is always a complicating factor which embarrasses your judgment afterwards?—Yes. Do you subscribe to the general opinion of experts that it is difficult to differentiate the results of shock and the results of liquor?—Yes. Did Muirson pass a remark to you that the right hand cyclist swerved to his right and made it impossible for Muirson to avoid him?—Yes, that is what he said. To Senior-Sergeant Holt the witness said that in the later stages of intoxication there would be sleepiness and a person’s reactions would be slower in an emergency. He gave due weight to a motorist having been in an accident in giving a certificate. Leslie B. Priest, a high school pupil, said that he and Richard Forward were cycling along Sea view road about 7.15 p.m. on June 28. Two other boys were, walking cn the footpath. Witness was about a yard from the footpath and Forward was little more than an arm’s length on the outside of him. “I had a dynamo set on my bicycle, a rear reflector, and a white-painted mudguard. Forward had no front light, but he had a torch. I think it was lighted. We were cycling at a good walking pace. I heard a crash and saw the car go on down the road with Dick Forward in a sitting position on the bonnet of the car. When the car passed me I should say it was doing about 30 miles an hour. The car went about 60 yards, with Forward on the bonnet, after the accident,” said witness.

Lester Thorn, of Motueka, Robert P. Taylor, and Stanley C. Friend, of Nelson, three schoolboys, also gave evidence. Picked Up Torch

Albert Edward Bodger, a foreman employed by the Christchurch City Council at New Brighton, said he heard a crash and saw the car lights. When he reached the car the driver was out of the car with his arm round the boy Forward. The driver asked witness to help him lift the boy into the car and said he would take him back to Ottawa road. The driver smelled of liquor. Muirson was very quiet. William Henry Stokes, painter, of Seaview road, said the lights on the car seemed to be of low power. He thought, as visibility was poor, the car was too far towards the left of the road. It went through his mind that if the driver did not pull out to his right he must have a collision with the cyclists. John Alexander Craib, bootmaker, Seaview road, said that, after the crash, he picked up a shoe and a torch on the road. The torch went on when he pressed the button.

Constable P. Slattery said the left mudguard of the car was damaged and there was a dent on the left side of the bonnet of the car near the base of the windscreen. Muirson appeared to be sleepy and drowsy. Later, when eseprting him to the central police station, he could smell liquor on his breath. Sergeant J. Mclntosh described how, when he went to the scene of the accident. he found a motor-car parked on the north side of the street facing east. “I saw the boy Forward lying on the footpath just in front of the motor-car. His feet and legs were stretched over the gutter, there was some blood about his mouth and nose, and he appeared to be unconscious,” said Sergeant Mclntosh. Witness then said that when he spoke to accused he had a sleepy appearance. When he accompanied Muirson to the police station accused’s breath smelt of liquor and he appeared to be exceedingly slow in his movements. Sergeant Mclntosh said that he later noticed that Muirson’s speech was slightly slurred. “When I asked him what he had been drinking he made no reply,” said witness. To Senior-Sergeant Holt witness said that he was satisfied that a charge of being intoxicated in charge of a motorcar which he had laid against accused could be substantiated. Sergeant J. B. Kearton gave evidence of photographs taken at the scene of the accident and of the car. The hearing was then adjourned until to-day, when two more witnesses will give evidence. Muirson was granted bail in his own recognisance of £2OO and one surety of £2OO or two of £lOO.