Supreme Court Young Man Acquitted Of Negligent Driving

Press, Volume C, Issue 29680, 25 November 1961, Page 15

Supreme Court Young Man Acquitted Of Negligent Driving

A young man who struck and injured a cyclist on the Southbridge - Rakaia Huts highway shortly after 6 pm. on June 28 was found not guilty by a jury in the Supreme Court yesterday on a charge of negligent driving causing injury. The accused, William Roger Ford, aged 21, a labourer, had pleaded not guilty to a charge of negligent driving causing injury to Robert Hunter Hannah, aged 66. Mr Justice Macarthur discharged the accused. The jury took 35 minutes to reach its verdict. Mr C. M. Roper appeared I for the Crown. Mr P. G. S. Penlington represented the i accused. Mr Roper said Hannah had gone to the Southbridge hotel after work, and left to cycle home about 6.10 pun. He was cycling behind a truck delivering milk near the intersection of Brook street, and did not remember anything else until he awoke in hospital, Mr Roper said. He said the milkman, a Mr Gerrings, had a rear red light on his truck, and a light shining on to the milk cans in the back. Gerrings had stopped to make a delivery to a house and was pouring milk beside the truck when he heard a crash and saw the cyclist “flying towards him.” The back of the truck was struck by the accused’s light truck, which continued on for 250 ft before the accused turned round and went back to the accident scene. The accused told police he did not see the cyclist, and it appeared he did not see the milk truck, said Mr Roper. There were tyre marks on the road for 34ft before the point where he struck the cyclist. The Crown alleged that the accused failed to keep a proper lookout and was negligent in not seeing Hannah or the milk truck, and further negligent in travelling at an excessive speed under the circumstances. Mr Roper said Constable G. F. Davidson gave evidence of taking measurements at the scene. Cross-examined by Mr Penlington, he said the dynamo on Hannah’s bicycle was jammed in the “off" position after the accident. It needed considerable pressure to switch it on. Hannah said he always cycled on the shingle at the side of the road. He had four drinks with a friend at the hotel. Gerardus Jacobus Cornelius Gerrings, a milk vendor, said he was filling a billy with milk when he beard the crash behind the truck. He said he had parked the truck with its two right wheels just on the bitumen roadway. Most of the truck was over the shingle. In a statement made to Constable A. Wilson, of Leeston, the accused said he had been unable to work on the day of the accident because of wet weather earlier, and went to the Southbridge hotel at 3.30 p.m. He con-

sumed six soz glasses of beer up to 6 pm. He said he was travelling along the main highway art between 40 and 45 miles an hour, and did not see anything on the road ahead of him. “Immediately before the accident I did not see any lights in front of me. After I returned to the scene I found one red light going on the truck,” said the accused. He said he considered the cyclist must have been between the milk truck and his vehicle, and thus obscured the truck’s light. Cross-examined, Constable Wilson said there was only a very faint smell of liquor on the accused after the accident. He had no doubt about the accused's ability to drive. Defence Submissions Mr Penlington elected not to call evidence for the defence. He submitted that the Crown had failed to prove beyond doubt that the accused’s driving fell below the standard of a reasonably careful motorist. The accident, he said, had occurred just past an intersection in an open speed area. A hedge restricted visibility to some extent to the right, and as there was no compulsory srtop at the intersection the accused would have to exercise care in looking for traffic on his right. The accused's speed was well below that permitted in this area, and the accident would have occurred within two seconds of his passing the intersection. There was no doubt that the accused would have looked to his right for other traffic as any prudent driver would do, Mr Penlington said. Mr Penlington referred to the evidence that no trace was found of abulb in the cyclist’s rear light, and that the dynamo was in the off position. There was a grave doubt whether the bicycle was hit at all, or whether the lighting Was adequate, and the milkman did not recall seeing any light approaching, he said.

The evidence that the skid marks veered out from the edge of the road indicated that the accused had reacted to the danger ahead some distance before he struck Hannah, said Mr Penlington. The fact- that the accused struckthe milk truck was of no significance ih the agony of the moment after the accused struck Hannah. This truck could have been parked further to the left on the gravel verge, Mr Penlington said.