MOTORIST STANDING TRIAL

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 118, 12 February 1935, Page 11

MOTORIST STANDING TRIAL

Negligent Driving Charge DEATH ON MASTERTONCARTERTON ROAD Evidence in support of the prosecution of John Stewart, charged with negligently driving a motor-car on the Masterton-Carterton road at Clareville on November 30, thereby causing the death of Thomas Lacey, was heard In the Supreme Court at Wellington yesterday. The disappearance of the vehicle that had been involved in the accident attracted attention to the fatality at the time. The trial commenced after lunch and the case for the Crown occupied most of the afternoon. Mr. S. V. Gooding, who appeared for accused, outlined the.defence before the court adjourned until 10 a.m. to-day. The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, was on the bench. Mr. P. S. K. Macassey, Crown prosecutor, conducted the prosecution. Leonard Arthur Daysli, employed at the Greytown Cheese Factory, said that he left Masterton at 10.20 p.m. for Carterton on his motor-cycle. Two or three miles from Carterton he met at man in a dark suit who put up his hand for witness to stop. The man wa.s on his left and did not appear to be drunk. About a quarter of a mile further on he met a car going in the same direction as the man. At Carterton he expected to meet the driver of a bus that was to have left Masterton about the same time as himself, and when it did not arrive he returned along the road and found it had stopped alongside a man lying on the road whom witness thought was the man he had seen walking. It was a. good night for driving. Lying on Grass. Vincent Claude Andrews, the driver of the bus, said he found the man lying on the grass at the side of the road with his feet just on the metal, of which there was a breadth of several feet between the grass and the pavement. He was bleeding from a wound on the temple and complained of a pain in the groin. Before the discovery of the man the bus had passed a touring car with odd headlamps going toward Mastertoil. A deposition by Dr. A. Hoskin that the injured man died 24 hours after his admission to hospital from shock and peritonitis was read. Injuries consistent with bls being knocked down by a motor-car were described, and the doctor said that Lacey’s eyesight was subnormal. Car Passenger’s Evidence. Henry James Flynn said that he rode in a cur driven by Stewart and another man from the Taratahi Hotel to the Royal Oak Hotel. There they had drinks and departed with liquor. All appeared to witness to be sober. Stewart drove the car toward Masterton along the main road until they turned down a road that he thought was near Boundary Road. Questioned about the events before the car was turned off the main road, witness said that he siaw a form for a glimpse, thinking it was somebody on a bicycle. Witness thought the car missed him, and they drove on. He was sitting behind the driver, and the man on the road was) on the left. He felt a slight brush or bump. Witness turned round and thought they had missed him, and remarked that,- the man was very lucky, or deserved to be killed, or something to that effect. He might have said “Go on,” but he did not think that he said to the driver, “Go for your life.” Neither did he hear the other passenger say that or advise Stewart to turn down off the main road. Statement by Accused. Detective F. N. Robinson said that accused when he was first interviewed made a statement denying his part in the casualty, but later made a new one which was that a man suddenly stepped out on the road and was struck by the side of the car. He started to pull up, but the other occupants of the car called out to him to go on, one saying, “Get out of it as fast as you can.” He would not have turned off the main road if he had not been told to do so, because the police would be coming down the main road. Later he had intended going to the police, but saw’ nothing about the accident in the newspapers, and concluded that the man was not seriously hurt. Then lie found that the victim had died and he became afraid. Evidence by other police officers was given also. Intended Defence. Outlining the defence, which the jury will hear to-day, Mr. Gooding said that accused would give evidence himself that Lacey suddenly staggered into the road in front of the car Evidence would be given by those who had known Lacey to show that be was exceedingly shortsighted and of awkward gait, and that before he was knocked down lie had been very drunk. Drivers of other vehicles that had passed along the road where the accident happened would tell how they had narrowly missed knocking down a man who had run out on the road.