DISTRACTED BY WASP

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28895, 15 May 1959, Page 15

DISTRACTED BY WASP

Negligent Driving Caused Death (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 14. An Otahuhu woman who looked away from the road while trying to catch a wasp which entered the car she was driving on the Great South road at Mercer on January 18, had at least some degree of control over her actions, said Mr R. M. Grant, S.M., in the Pukekohe Magistrate’s Court. Commenting that Mrs Loretta Phyllis Dunstan, aged 37, had suffered sufficient punishment because of the death of her mother in the collision which followed the wasp incident, the Magistrate imposed no fine after convicting her on a charge of negligent driving causing death. Mrs Dunstan’s licence, however, was cancelled for four years and she was ordered to pay costs and witnesses’ expenses totalling £l4 12s. The Magistrate gave his decision after hearing medical evidence on oath from a doctor whose evidence had been read to the Court at an earlier hearing. Mrs Dunstan, represented by Mr J. V. Imperatrice, had denied the offence.

The fact that Mrs Dunstan tried to place a handkerchief over the wasp showed her actions were not completely uncontrollable, which was the basis of the defence, said the Magistrate. Mrs Dunstan said in evidence at the earlier hearing that ever since childhood she had been allergic to insect bites, particularly to wasp bites. Mr G. Taylor prosecuted.