Driver guilty of dangerous driving causing death

Press, 27 April 1988, Page 22

Driver guilty of dangerous driving causing death

A motorist whose car fatally injured a young motor-cyclist at a Hornby intersection last July was convicted- yesterday on three charges arising from the !crash.

' George! Ronald Lynn, aged 35, tinemployed. was found guilty by a District Court jury of dangerous driving causing death. . The jury took about 40 minutes to reach its verdict after a trial lasting one day. After the verdict. Lynn pleaded guilty to two other charges resulting from the incident — driving while disqualified and driving a vehicle without a warrant of fitness. A number of further related charges were then withdrawn.

Judge Noble convicted him, and remanded him on continued bail for sentence on Mav 10.

} Lynn was the driver of a Triumph car which collided with a motor-cycle ridden by Mathew Scott Steventon, aged 16. last July 6. The accident occurred at the intersection of Buchanans Road and Carmen Road. Hornby, when Lynn, according to the Crown, failed to stop at the Buchanans Road stop sign: }| Mr Brent Stanaway, for the Crown, said that Lynn was seen} to have changed down a gear and accelerated into the intersection, narrowly missing one car before Mr Steventon's machine hit his car on the passenger’s side.

Mr Steventon died of his injuries about three hours later.

Lynn (Mr Gary Collin) contended that he had stopped, and checked that the way was clear before proceeding. The motorcycle. he said, was travelling too fast. When he had seen it. it was still some distance away.

Bryan Alexander Bryson, a builder, said that he' was driving on Carmen Road towards the intersection. following about 40 yards behind the motor-cyclist.

Being wary of the corner, he said that his speed was about 30 km/h. He noticed a blue car coming from the right, which “came straight through,” at a speed he estimated at 50 to 55 km/h.

He saw no braking or acceleration by the car, nor any brake lights on the motor-cycle. Cross-examined by Mr

Collin. Mr Bryson agreed that he did not see the car go through the stop sign, but first saw it immediately afterwards, "but no way did it stop at the compulsory stop." !| ! Witness agreed he knew the accused, but was not aware of any bad feeling between them. Patrick Steven Reardon. a union delegate, said that he was cycling home on Buchanans Road, and saw the accused’s car coming when he glanced over his right shoulder.

About 100 to 120 yards from the intersection, the driver changed down a gear and accelerated past witness towards the stop sign. Blue smoke was "flying out of the exhaust pipe.”

Witness said that, the occupants, a male driver and female passenger, appeared to be arguing.!

He estimated the car’s speed at the stop sign as 60 to 80 km/h, and the driver was “still gunning it."

Mr Reardon said that the car’s brake! lights did not come on before the impact. It just missed the tail of a Cortina car. then the motor-cycle hit} it “smack in the middle."

The car’s brake lights then lit momentarily then the car accelerated away, and finally stopped about 150 to 200 yards further up Buchanans Road, he said.

Witness recognised the accused, whom he knew, "not personally, but to look at," when he got out of the car with his passenger. and went into a house.

Cross-examined by Mr Collin, Mr Reardon denied seeing the car being pushed sideways by the impact.

Joy Gwendolyn Timu gave evidence that (she was walking beside Buchanans Road and turned to see the accused’s car coming towards her after hearing the crash. It had veered because of the crash, and was pointing towards her at the side of the road.

John William Hunt, a traffic officer, told the Court of attending ! the scene of the accident and helping ambulance officers tend to Mr Steventon. He contacted the accused, still at the address he had stopped at, got his address and arranged to call on him later.

Cross-examined, he said that) he could not say anything about the speeds of the vehicles involved front their final positions on the road.

Constable T. C. R. Riwiika gave evidence of taking a statement from the 1 accused after the crash, in which he said that; he and his wife had visited his mother then left ito drive home down Buchanans Road.

His wife was "cut up" about the! cot death of their baby daughter a few davs before.

They had crossed the intersection, then decided to hetum to his mother’s house.

When they reached Carmen Road on the way back, they stopped, he said.

The way was clear, so he pulled out. then was hit by the motor-cycle, the impact knocking the car sideways, into the righthand lane;

In the statement, Lynn said that he then had to put the car in second gear to accelerate out of the way of an oncoming car. Taking the witness stand in his own defence, Lynn said that when he stopped at the stop sign, he saw the motor-cycle 150 to 200 yards away. “The road was clear so I took off."

Cross-examined by Mr Stanaway, Lynn agreed that he had not mentioned seeing the motor-cycle at all when interviewed by Constable Riwaka. He was adamant that he had stopped, and denied that the accident could have been the result of a lapse of concentration because he was upset at the bereavement.

Referring to ill-feeling between himself and previous witnesses, Lynn said that Mr Bryson was “out to get me. I think." but agreed that that did not change his evidence. Sylvia Margaret Lynn, the accused’s wife, also gave evidence of seeing the motor-cycle when the car was stopped at the intersection.

"It looked like he was travelling a bit fast, but he was about 150 to 200 yards away." Her husband was upset over their daughter’s death, and probably had tears in his eyes, she said in cross-examination.

But it was not a case of being so upset that he failed to notice the intersection, she said.