DRIVER SENT TO GAOL

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28822, 17 February 1959, Page 14

DRIVER SENT TO GAOL

Failure To Give Assistance “It is true that nothing you could have done would have saved, this young man's life, but you were not aware of that at the time; your only concern was to save your own miserable skin,” said Mr E. A. Lee, S.M., when he sentenced Graeme Francis Swift, aged 23, a butcher, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Swift was appearing for sentence on charges of failing to render assistance after an accident and failing to report an accident The defendant was driving a motor-car which struck and killed a 17-year-old youth, Gary Thomas Gleeson, in Winters road bn December 18. Swift was sentenced to imprisonment for three,months, and had his driving licence cancelled for three years on the charge of failing to render assistance, and for failing to report the accident he was fined £2O and had his driving licence cancelled for six months, the cancellations to be concurrent. A third charge against the defendant, of .negligent driving causing death, had been dismissed. “You have been convicted of two serious motoring offences in which the circumstances disclose a callous disregard of your responsibilities,” said the Magistrate before imposing sentence. He said the defendant had not been sufficiently disturbed by the accident, or by his failure to carry .out his duties, to prevent him from going on holiday to Kaikoura immediately after the accident. Apart from his previous good record there were no mitigating circumstances in the present serious offences. Referring to Swift’s failure to report the accident, the Magistrate said that had he desired he could have discharged his responsibility to the police to report the accident the day after it had happened, when he had had time to become aware of the full consequences. Mr B. J. Drake, who represented the defendant, said that inquiries had revealed that the defendant was in a state of shock after the accident, and this was aggravated by his mother’s state of health—chronic anxiety which, he said, had become worse after the accident. The combined shock had resulted in his not reporting the accident.