CYCLIST’S DEATH

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27576, 5 February 1955, Page 8

CYCLIST’S DEATH

DRIVER FINED ON FATAL NEGLIGENCE CHARGE

On a charge of negligent driving causing death, James Thomas Kenneth Whyte (Mr W. F. Brown), was fined £l5 in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday! His licence was suspended and he was prohibited from obtaining another for 12 months.' Mr L. N. Ritchie, S.M., was on the bench. The charge was a sequel to an accident which occurred at the intersection .of Moorhouse avenue and Antigua street about 8.30 a.m. on November 11, 1954, as the result of which a cyclist, Andrew Thompson, aged 66. died. “This deplorable accident was purely and simply a misadventure on the part of the defendant, with a certain amount of carelessness,” said Sub-Inspector J. C. Fletcher, who prosecuted. “There was no question of speed or liquor. ]¥hen Whyte was in about the middle of the intersection a push bicycle loomed up in front of the car and the driver had no chancr of avoiding it The defendant hit ‘ v r cyclist, who ‘ 1 on the roadway ; his head and died in an ambul. on the way to hospital.” Mr Brown said that Whyte was 3t married, with two young children. H had been driving for 16 years and had never had an accident or a conviction. As he approached the wide intersection of Moorhouse avenue and Antigua street at about 20 miles an hour, he looked to his right and left and then paid more attention to the right hand corner. He did not see the cyclist until he was three feet away; it must have been a blind spot. Whyte had done all he could do after the accident. “Either you failed to see the cyclist because of a blind spot or else your attention was momentarily diverted elsewhere and as a result you did not see him. thus making it impossible to stop your vehicle in time,” said the Magistrate. “No punishment this Court can inflict can measure up to the agony of mind through which you have passed —a life has been lost and you are responsible," said the Magistrate.