Driver denies causing accident

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 12

Driver denies causing accident

Nelson reporter

a utility being driven by Gutschlag, in the opposite direction, just after the truck and trailer had negotiated a tight left hand and downhill bend. Gutschlag, and his passenger, Mervyn James-Dunn, died in the utility which was flattened.

The deaths of two men in a freak accident on State Highway 6 last March had their sequel in th£ District Court at Nelson this week when the driver of a logging truck was charged with alternative breaches of the traffic regulations. Ronald Bruce Ryder, aged 46, denied both charges. The case was part-heard by Judge Headifen before being adjourned to November 30.

Neither the truck nor trailer had any apparent defects which could have contributed to the accident, said Allen Walton, an automotive surveyor, who examined both vehicles after the accident. Bernard Thomason, a truck driver with 30 years experience, said he had seen Ryder and his load at Murchison. Four short logs were carried on the trailer and these just fitted into the trailer bolster. The load looked a little top heavy but he did not think it was too high. He said he had mentioned to the defendant that the logs looked a little short. Because of overhang and this type of truck and trailer, the unit would tend to move round a little on the road, he said.

Ryder pleaded not guilty to alternative charges of operating . a heavy motorvehicle on State highway 6 “with a load' so unsafely secured” (or in the alternative, “with a load so loaded”) as to be liable to causing injury to Allen Russell Gutschlag.

Sergeant David Allen prosecuted and Mr D. J. Maze appeared for Ryder. The prosecution arose from an accident opposite Raits Road, on Highway 6, a few kilometres north of the Owen River, on March 23. The accident involved a truck and a three-axle trailer unit loaded with four beech logs being driven by the defendant from Mariiia, and

He explained how a load of logs was normally secured and later re-checked after they had settled. Crbss.-examined by Mr Maze,the. said the defendant had the reputation of being a courteous, and even an overcautious driver. Constable Thomas Bowe, who at > thet.time of the. accident was stationed at Murchison; said that when he arrived at the accident he gained the impression that one of the logs from the

trailer had hit the utility. The truck and trailer were lying in a swamp a little further along the road. The defendant told him the load was an awkward one and that he had not been happy with it and had to be careful with it. As he got to the bend he had heard an explosion like a loud bang. He looked back through his mirror but could not see anything. When he came on the bend the trailer tightened up “and it all happened.” Constable Bowe said he later examined the trailer’s cradle strop which had broken where it bent round the right-hand, collapsible stanchion. This, and pieces of the securing chains were, sent to the D.S.LR. for analysis, he, said.

The bend was acknowledged to be a bad one and the downhill side of the road

before, the bend was con-/' A metallurgy expert with trolled by a 70 km/h speed * the D.S.I.R, David Malcolm sign. ‘V ' '■ Firth, said he concluded Later,, in an interview, the from his examinations that defendant said that as he got the cable strop and the to the bend, he heard a bang, chains and shackle had failed saw gravel and a log in his from the excessive overload rear-View mirror, “just a from the movements of the flash” and he had steered logs. into the swamp. The only witness heard for Cross-examined he said his the defence before the hearinvestigations had indicated ing was adjourned, was that the trailer had not been Derek Ronald Wilkinson, an loaded in any unlawful way, expert in metallurgy of Wellnor was it overweight. ington. He said he examined Ross Patrick Wills said he the strop round the stanchion was the loader driver who and bolster and found that at loaded the defendant’s truck its failure point the rope had at Maruia that day. After lost about 30 per cent of its describing how. this was done strength because of the manhe said that he and- the ner in which it lay. The place defendant had discussed the where the abrasion occurred load and "we didn’t like the would not be visible to the log at the top on the right, it naked eye. The bending and looked to be sitting right but stressing of the wire round it looked out of place.” There the stanchion had caused was no discussion about its mechanical overload, over a safety. long period of time.