FAILURE TO STOP ALLEGED

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25581, 24 August 1948, Page 8

FAILURE TO STOP ALLEGED

DRIVER COMMITTED FOR TRIAL A charge of failing to stop after an accident, in which Robert William Hodgson was killed on Riccarton road on July 18, against Frantz Bonisch Garlick, was heard in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday by Mr Raymond Ferner. S.M. Garlick, a seedsman, aged 36, of Wellington, pleaded not guilty, and was committed for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court at Christchurch'. Mr D. W. Russell appeared for Garlick and Senior-Sergeant J. J. Kearns prosecuted. The inquest was held in conjunction with the hearing of the charge, the Coroner returning a verdict that Hodgson’s death was caused by gross injuries to the brain, sustained on July 18. when he was struck by a motor-car driven by Frantz Bonisch Garlick. Lily Ann Boby, a married woman, said Hodgson was her brother. He left her home, 9 Huia street, Riccarton. about 9.25 p.m. on July 18, to catch' the tram to his home in Durham street. Her brother was wearing a light overcoat. Henry James Beswick said that he was walking east along Riccarton road, west of Puriri street, about 9.30 p.m., when a car, travelling east, passed him at a speed not under 45 miles an hour. At the intersection he heard a double thud. The car swerved slightly to the right to about the middle of the road, but did not stop. He then saw a body on the road. Other witnesses described the accident, and John Arthur Lewis, a medical practitioner, who heard the noise of the impact from a nearby house, gave evidence of an examination of Hodgson he had made soon after the accident. The man was dead when he first saw him, said the doctor. Pathologist's Report Hodgson’s death was due to gross injury to the brain, said Dr. A. B. Pearson, pathologist at the Christchurch Public Hospital. He said he had examined stains on the bonnet of a motor-car at the Christchurch Police Station oil July 20. He also took some hair from a small plate on the bonnet of the car. Denis Tiffin Stewart, assistant pathologist at the hospital, said that he examined specimens of bloodstains and hair given him by Dr. Pearson on August 18. The Government Analyst. Norman Patrick Alcorn, said there was no trace of alcohol in th‘3 blood# he examined. Roy Alexander Sangster, a departmental garage manager, said he examined pieces of glass and had come to the conclusion that they came from either a

Chevrolet Fleetmaster or a Chevrolet Stylemaster. Alan Robertson Grant, a police sergeant, gave details of the scene of the accident, which he visited at 9.57 p.m. on July 18. On July 19, the accused had called at the police station with his solicitor, Mr Russell. Garlick had then produced a statement, signed by himself, in which he admitted the possibility of his having been involved in an accident the preceding night. Police Constable Alan Vernon Brown described the damage done to the accused's car, and Sergeant John Bainbridge Kearton, a police photographer, produced photographic exhibits of the scene of the accident and of the car. Garlick’s car was a Chevrolet Stylemaster, said Sergeant Kearton. '