WITNESS SAYS TANKER HAD STEERING FAULT

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29002, 17 September 1959, Page 16

WITNESS SAYS TANKER HAD STEERING FAULT

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 16.

A motor-tanker involved in an accident in which a young man and his fiancee lost their lives had a steering fault, and was inclined to swing and roll, said a witness in the Magistrate's Court at Wellington today. Before the Court is Raybone Walter Kinzett, aged 36, a truck driver (Mr Nigel Taylor). Two indictable charges against Kinzett are that at Plimmerton on June 26. while under the influence of drink to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control, he was in charge of a motor-tanker and by an act or omission caused the deaths of Donna Elizabeth Adsett. aged 21, and Barry Walker, aged 20. On two summary charges Kin-

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

Dr. W. K. Bryson, of Plimmerton, said in evidence today that he gave Kinzett, who was in the cab of the capsized tanker, an injection of morphine. He could not say if Kinzett showed signs of intoxication. John Bell-Booth, of Auckland, said he was driving his car north with one passenger. There was a car in front and another behind. He saw oncoming headlights on the bend and the oncoming vehicle hit the car in front of him. He swerved to the left, but his car was also hit by the southbound vehicle and knocked off the road. To defence counsel, he said the car behind his (the young couple’s car) had at no stage tried to pass him. Truck Driver’s Evidence Colin Douglas Marsh, of Mulgrove street, a truck driver, said that on June 26 he drove an articulated seven-ton truck to Levin for spraying work. The accused had also driven to Levin on the same day. and was driving a seven-ton vehicle fitted with a tank and spraying unit. The witness met the accused in the washroom of a Levin hotel at 4 p.m., and left with him at 4.30 p.m. after they had had four and three beers respectively. On the way to Wellington they kept their trucks fairly close together because of a fault in the vehicle he was driving. The speed limit for the trucks was 30 miles an hour. He could not remember exceeding 35 miles an hour on the way to Wellington.

He and the accused had stopped at Otaki for 45 minutes, and had two or three drinks in a hotel. They had subsequently stopped at the “Paraparaumu straight” and elsewhere because of wear in the petrol lead of his vehicle.

When they resumed the journey the accused’s truck was 100yds—the normal distance —in front, and the vehicles were 300 to 400yds apart when they reached a tile works near Plimmerton. At the south end of the straight, the witness said, he saw “part of Ray's spraying equipment on the top side of the road above the bank.” The witness drove to an intersection and went back to the scene of the accident. To Mr W. R. Birks, prosecuting, the witness said he had driven the accused’s vehicle and found it “one of the hardest I have driven.” If the truck carried more than 100 gallons it was inclined to swing and roll.

“In my opinion, the truck has always had a fault in the steering,” he said. Speed of Waggons

Frank Eric Bowman, a bus driver, said that on June 26 he drove a coach from Napier to Wellington, and saw two bitumen waggons crossing the summit of Pukerua Bay hill. When descending the hill he increased his speed to 45 miles an hour in an attempt to pass the waggons, but they drew away. He subsequently arrived at the scene of the accident. Arnold Pearson Cork, of Waikanae, said that "a great black shape with lights” came out of the darkness and crossed at a sharp angle to the incorrect side of the road, as he was driving from Wellington on the Levin highway. The witness said he left his car and saw the tanker and car at the bottom of the bank, facing the opposite direction to which they had been travelling. There was a badly-injured young woman in the car, and a man was lying in the cab of the tanker with his right leg caught in the steering wheel.

To Mr Birks, the witness said that the tanker driver showed signs of havin- had too much to drink rather than the effects of shock. He estimated the tanker was travelling at least 50 miles an hour when it struck the car.

The hearing will continue tomorrow.