Pedestrian died after being hit by trailer

Press, 16 July 1987, Page 34

Pedestrian died after being hit by trailer

PA Wellington A pedestrian hit by the runaway trailer from a passing articulated truck died after being thrown 11m, the District Court at Lower Hutt was told. Before the Court was Richard Graham Cooper, aged 30, driver, of Khandallah, who pleaded guilty to a charge of careless use of a motor-vehicle, causing the death of Lenora Valentine Sacksen on February 25. Prosecuting, Sergeant Wayne McKinnon said that about 4 p.m. that day Cooper was driving a heavy truck south on Cambridge Terrace, towing a trailer carrying a road roller. The trailer separated

from the truck and went about 80m before hitting a lamp-post, and then the pedestrian, throwing her 11m on to a driveway, where she died. Investigations showed there was a safety chain on the trailer, but it was too short and there was no means to attach the chain to the truck. The trailer warrant of fitness had expired in 1984. Mr McKinnon said Cooper had used a piece of No. 8 wire to loop through the hole at the bottom of the tower-bolt, as there was no pin available. Counsel for Cooper, Mr Paul Paino said the police were also charging

Cooper’s employer at the time of the accident with careless use of a motorvehicle causing death. Mr Paino said the accident had been a freak in that the trailer had detached itself and had travelled alongside the truck, and that Cooper had tried to drive the truck in front of the trailer to stop it. “He did all he could,” Mr Paino said. Judge Robertson said careless driving cases came before the Court almost every day and usually no-one was killed or injured, yet the same sort of carelessness could have tragic consequences as in this case. Cooper was fined $5OO.