SILENCE OF WITNESS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 104, 26 January 1933, Page 10

SILENCE OF WITNESS

Tramway Employee’s Part in an Accident COMMENT BY CORONER By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, Jan. 25. • At an inquest concerning the death of a girl who was knocked town by a tram, the coroner, Mr. E. D. Mosley, made several references to the difficulty the police had had in their work through the refusal of a tramway employee to explain his part in the accident. Mr. Mosley criticised the Tramway Board regulation which prevented an employee from saying anything. “I cannot understand why there should be such a rule,” lie said. “Surely it is unwise for a public body to hinder the police in this way. There should be no concealment.” Counsel for the board, Mr. Hutchison, explained that there was no intention to conceal anything. A tramway rule would not allow officials to make any statement to anybody. If the manager had been approached the matter would have been smoothed out “I think the police were right in not going to the manager,” s'aid Mr. Mosley. “They have a right to the information.” Before questioning the motorman, Mr. Hutchison referred to the fact that the motorman had made no statement to the police. He said it was a purely unfortunate occurrence. The Coroner: It seems to me to be an extraordinary attitude to take up, and most undesirable from the public point of view. Senior-Sergeant Fox said that as a result the police had been left in the air and unable to investigate the motorman’s side of the story. “That means that most important evidence from the coroner’s point of view is lost, and the ends of justice are not met,” commented the coroner.