CYCLIST’S DEATH

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27111, 6 August 1953, Page 5

CYCLIST’S DEATH

FATAL NEGLIGENCE CHARGE CAR DRIVER TO STAND TRIAL Ronald Alan Davey, a rubber worker, aged 25, pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to charges of negligent driving causing death, failing to stop after an accident to see if anyone was injured, and failing to stop after an accident. Mr Raymond Ferner. S.M., committed the accused to the Supreme Court for trial. Mr T. A. Gresson, and with him Mr B. McClelland, appeared for the accused.

The charges were a result of the death of a cyclist, Ernest Arthur Clark, a retired labourer, aged 57. in St. John street, about 6.20 p.m. on May 28, said Sub-Inspector J. C. Fletcher. The cyclist was dead when he was found lying on the road shortly after an accident. The accused had not reported the matter to the police until late the next day.

To Mr Gresson, William McDonald Ramage, a police photographer, said it would appear from the photographs of St. John street, indicating the positions of marks and articles found on the roadway, that the cyclist had plainly been travelling on the incorrect side of the road. It could be that the marks made on the bumper of the car had been caused by a bicycle on its side. There was no indication of any damage to the radiator or the upper structure of the car. Colin Thomas Bushby Pearson, a pathologist, said he had examined the body of the cyclist, and in his opinion death had been caused by multiple injuries over the whole of the body. Death would have been practically instantaneous. He had sent specimens of Clark’s blood and urine to the Government Analyst, and he had seen a report of the results of the analysis. It indicated that Clark, at the time of his death, had been very intoxicated. He would think that Clark would have had very great difficulty in riding a bicycle. Analysis for Alcohol . Norman Patrick Alcorn, the Government Analyst at Christchurch, said he had found 0.36 per cent, of alcohol in the blood specimen, and 0.45 per cent, in the urine specimen. A man was considered to be intoxicated when there was a test of 0.2 per cent, in a specimen. He had also been given an overcoat, to analyse an oily stain on it, and he had found that the stain was mineral oil. It had been suggested to him that the stain had been caused by the coat having come into contact with the underside of a car, and the stain was consistent with this suggestion.

Janet Madeleine Kelly, a shorthand typist, aged 16, said she had passed Clark on his bicycle as she was riding her bicycle down St. John street in the opposite direction about 6.20 p.m. When she passed him, Clark was riding his bicycle normally on the correct side of the road,, and his dynamo light was going. She had known Clark all her life.

Maurice Floyd Waghorn said he had been driving a truck down St. John street from Ferry road, about 6.20 p.m.. and had seen an object lying in the roadway. Further on he saw a bicyclo He went back along the street, and found a body. It was very dark at the time.

Annie Christina Laing, a married woman, of 38 St. John- street, said she heard a crash in the street outside. It sounded like iron falling off a truck. After the crash a car “revved” up and went away towards Ferry road. Claude Edward Steer, the assistant supervisor at the City Council’s vehicle testing station, said he had examined the accused’s car on June 3 at the request of the police. He had found that the headlights were poor—they were dull, and needed focusing. The foot-brake was effective, and in a road test the car handled well and steered all right. The silencer was very noisy. Constable Colin Rainey said he had visited the scene of the accident just after the body had been removed. “The following morning, as I had been unable to locate the motorist who had been involved in the accident, the matter was given a certain amount of newspaper publicity,” he said. “About 6.30 p.m. that evening the accused reported the accident to the police, and made a statement.” Accused’s Statement After leaving work about 4 p.m. on the day of the accident he had gone to a hotel and had a brandy and a shandy, said the accused in a statement, produced by Constable Rainey. He left the hotel about 4.10 p.m. and went to a friend’s house, and went home about 5.25 p.m. He left home again about 8.30 p.m., and as he drove down St. John street he had only his parking lights on because the battery was fairly low. He intended to switch the headlights on when he got to Ferry road. He was travelling about 20 miles an hour, keeping close to the left side of the street, but had to go fairly close to the middle of the „ roadway to pass a vehicle. parked on his leit. He saw an object about 12ft in front of the car, continued the statement. It appeared to be a log of wood. He applied his brakes, but before he could brake hard enough, the car ran over the object. He thought he would stop, but the car had travelled a good distance down the road by this time, and he decided not to bother going back. Later, he saw a truck with slabs of wood on it parked at the side of the road, and thought to himself that that would be the truck the wood had fallen off.

The next day he heard at work that a man had been killed in an accident, and after reading newspaper reports he realised that the object he had struck the night before must have been the body of Clark, said the statement. He read that a driver had 24 hours in which to report an accident, so after talking the matter over with his father he decided to report to the police. To Mr Gresson? Constable Rainey said there was nothing to indicate that the accused had attempted to change the nature of the car in any way. There were several wood yards in the vicinity of the accident. Clark was a very heavily built man, and he would not look very like a log of wood. There were no marks on the roadway to indicate that the bicycle had been carried any distance. There was a deep gouge mark on the roadway just l underneath |he bicycle. The Magistrate allowed bail in the accused’s own recognisance of £5O, with one surety of £5O. He reserved his decision on the inquest into Clark’s death until the criminal business has been disposed of.