TAWA FLAT ACCIDENT

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 266, 7 August 1934, Page 6

TAWA FLAT ACCIDENT

Lorry-driver Sentenced to Six Months’ Jail “CULPABLE NEGLIGENCE” Sentence of six months’ imprisonment, witli hard labour, was imposed bv the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, in the Supreme Court yesterday on Cyril John Steer, lorry-driver, wlio had been found guilty of negligent driving so as to cause bodily injury. His Honour, said lie had a strong .suspicion that the evidence of three witnesses had been modified in the prisoner’s favour at his request, but as it had not been proved he did not propose to take suspicion into account. The jury had recommended Steer to anerey “on account of life unblemished record as a motor-driver.” Henry Janies Knight, secretary and organiser to the White Star Company and the New Zealand Road Transport Company, gave evidence that be had known Steer for the past seven or eight years and had always found him to be a particularly good driver and a man of sober and industrious habits. In replying to points raised at the conclusion of tho trial last week, Mr. Leicester said he agreed the inference could be drawn that the prisoner was concerned with a modification or toning down of the evidence of witnesses, but he submitted that that inference was not the only possible inference that could be drawn, that there were other inferences just as Likely, and that if they were excluded a grave injustice might be done to the prisoner. “At Grips With Police.” Counsel said he understood that at least two of the witnesses had, prion to the accident, ueen at grips with the police, and it might very well be that out of a spirit of bravado or perhaps even out of shame at the part they themselves had played in “this unhappy” business” thej’ had taken it upon themselves to modify or tone down their statements in order to help the prisoner or to ease their own consciences. There was no legal proof that the prisoner had approached the witnesses, and if they had elected to fail to remember what had happened, counsel .-aid he felt his Honour would be the last person to punish the prisoner for something for which he had not been responsible. Mr. Leicester said that at the time of the accident Steer was very worried ■—two of his children had been ill—and although there was no doubt he should have stopped, he might have thought that his small world was tumbling about his ears and that to stop was to bring ruin and misery upon himself. It was true he had had some liquor and the reason was somewhat unusual.

His Honour: All I can say, Mr. Leicester, is that if a motorist either just before going on a journey in his car, or while on fl journey, chooses to take liquor, lie does so a' his own risk, and unfortunately, not only at his own risk, but at the risk of every other person, pedestrian or motorist, using the roads. “There is no suggestion of the sort of driving we describe as. reckless,” .Mr. Leicester said. “At most we have that in passing the other car he came iu’ contact with it. May there not have been some error of judgment or some momentary lapse of attention?” Not Telling the Truth.„

I His Honour: If he had said so it might have made a difference, but, you See, lie didn’t. Instead of that he knew very well that he had hit that car. You can’t persuade me lie didn’t know. His Honour, in passing sentence, said: “There are circumstances in this case which call for special reference. That you are a good driver—that you are an excclleirt driver —I do not doubt, but from olte point of view that makes this case worse. This casualty happened in summer. during daylight hours, broad light, on a wide road, on a long, straight road. “Kermode, the man who was killed, was driving on his own side of the road. His right-hand wheel was seven feet away from the edge of the bitumen. You had therefore 11 feet of bitumen and three feet of metal absolutely clear. There was no other traffic there, but unfortunately you struck his car, so that yon were well on the tVrong side of the road. You had two-thirds of the road in which to pass him. yet you hit him. If that were all it would show, to my mind, most culpable negligence. A thing of that kind has no right to happen, and should not happen under such circumstances without, of course, some explanation. The steering gear may go wrong. That would be an explanation, but here there is no explanation, except one, which makes the position worse. About Seven Drinlts. “You commencetl this journey by having two drinks of beer at one hotel, and either two or three at another. You took with you on your journey to Tawa Fiat, with which to regale yourself and others with you, a gallon of beer, out of which you had three’ cups, so that you had about seven drinks. I don’t say for a moment that yop were in what the law regards as an intoxicated condition, but 1 nave no doubt, althougli you say it Is absurd to suggest it, that your driving was affected by the liquor you took. I don’t believe for a minute that the accident in the case of skilful driving like yours could possibly have happened otherwise. Well, there you have then culpable negligence. “Then we have the fact, that yon simply went on your journey, though you knew you had struck this car. Then we have the fact, and I am not going to take any notice of this, although I don’t altogether accept Mr. Leicester’s view, but nevertheless I shall take it into account: I don’t like the manner in which these other men gave their evidence, and I have a strong suspicion that their evidence was modified in your favour at your request, but that is not proved, and I shall not take suspicion into account. “This is a case where a short term of imprisonment must be imposed, but it is not a case in wliieii it is necessary to interfere with your license. Y’ou are undoubtedly a good driver . . . and I shall assume that this is an isolated case of negligence, and an isolated case of your taking liquor, and that it won’t happen again.” Prisoner was sentenced to imprisonment, with hard labour, for six months.