Tanker Driver In Court After Fatal Accident

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29001, 16 September 1959, Page 10

Tanker Driver In Court After Fatal Accident

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 15. Four charges relating to a motor accident at Plimmerton on June 26 of this year in which a young man and his fiancee were killed were preferred against Raybone Walter Kinzett, aged 36, a truck driver, before Mr M. B. Scully, S.M., in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court today. A bitumen tanker and four motor-cars were involved in the accident.

The Crown is proceeding against Kinzett on two indictable matters, that at Plimmerton on June 26, while under the influence of drink to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of a motor-vehicle, he was in charge of a motor tanker and by an act of omission caused the death of (1) Donna Elizabeth Adsett and (2) Barry Walker. On two summary charges Kin-

zett elected trial by jury. These charges are that he negligently drove a motor tanker, thereby causing the deaths of Miss Adsett and Walker.

Mr W. R. Birks is appearing for the Crown, and Kinzett is represented by Mr Nigel Taylor. The Crown is calling 49 witnesses, and the case is expected to last the rest of the week.

Kinzett, who was using crutches, was permitted to sit in the body of the Court. U. Accident on Bend Constable H. W. Haimona said that the accident occurred on a slight bend in the WellingtonPaekakariki highway about 200 yards each of the Plimmerton railway station. Four cars which had been travelling north were involved in the series of collisions with the south-bound bitumen tanker. All five vehicles came to rest on the west side of the road, spread over a distance of 378 ft. All five were damaged. An ambulance officer, R. E. Edwards, said that when he arrived at the accident he went to the cab of the tanker, where a doctor was attending to a man with a broken leg. The witness said that he was close to the man. His breath smelt of alcohol, and he had been drinking. David Gordon Campbell, a junior house surgeon, who admitted Kinzett to the Wellington Hospital on June 26, said the patient was suffering from a broken leg, lacerations, and shock. He was unable to form any opinion as to Kinzett’s sobriety. He had had an injection of morphine. Speed of Tanker

H. E. Burnand, an organiser, of New Plymouth, described being hit by an approaching vehicle on the evening of June 26 as he was driving his car to New Plymouth. He was surprised, he said, when he ascertained that the approaching vehicle was a bitumen tanker. Judging from the speed of its approach, he thought it was a car.

lan Digby Saunders, an engineer, a passenger in Burnand’s car, said there were four cars behind that driven by Burnand at the time of the accident. When he first saw the bitumen tanker he thought it was a bus pulling out to pass traffic. He would not state the speed of the tanker, as he was no judge, but the sound of the engine revolutions indicated that it was going fast. The hearing will be resumed tomorrow morning.