DAZZLED BY LIGHTS OF ANOTHER CAR

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 13

DAZZLED BY LIGHTS OF ANOTHER CAR

Driver’s Evidence at Inquiry DEATHS OF TWO AUCKLAND WOMEN By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, July 23. “A mau who drives a motor-car even at a speed of 20 miles an hour when he cannot see where he is going is. in my opinion, as much to blame as a man who drives blindfold.” said Mr. W. R McKean. S.M., coroner, at an inquest when reviewing the evidence of a motorist who attributed his accidentally killing two women on Great North Road at New Lynn on the evening of June 23 to his visibility being obscured by the lights of an oncoming motor-car. The victims of the tragedy were Mrs. Maria Evelyn Richardson, aged 71, of Devonport. and her daughter, Miss Alice Eve;yn Richardson, aged 30, who were killed as they were crossing the road to board a bus for the city. G. W Sinton, farmer, of Massey, was the driver of the car which struck them. “It is a shocking occurrence to find two persons killed at the same time oy a motor-car,” said Mr McKean, who returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, that the cause of death in each case was due to extensive injuries to the brain associated with shock.

“There is some evidence that the motor-car was not travelling more thau 20 miles an hour, and there is some that it was travelling at a greater speed and that at the' moment of impact it was on the wrong side of the centreline of the road. Sinton claims his vision u as affected by the lights of an approaching car I know how extremely difficult it is for a driver dazzled by the lights of another car, but when he cannot see it is his duty to pull up.”