CROSSING FATALITY
Motor Driver Acquitted MASTERTON TRAGEDY Jury’s Long Retirement After a retirement of close on four hours a Supreme Court jury yesterday acquitted James Thomas Rutherford, motor-driver, of Masterton, on charges of manslaughter and negligent driving, thereby causing death. The verdict of not guilty applied to both counts. The accused was/discharged. His Honour Mr. Justice Reed was- on the Bench. Tire charges arose out of a levelcrossing accident at the Renall Street crossing, Masterton, on April 9 last, when a motor-lorry, driven by Rutherford, which had been converted into a bus, was struck by a north-bound train. As a result one of the passengers, Frank Muirhead Gillespie, was killed. In his address to the jury the Crown Prosecutor,, criticising the evidence for the accused, suggested that the defence that Rutherford mistook the street lights up the track for those of the train was an afterthought.
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Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 260, 29 July 1932, Page 12
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146CROSSING FATALITY Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 260, 29 July 1932, Page 12
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