NEGLIGENCE ALLEGED

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 104, 27 January 1938, Page 6

NEGLIGENCE ALLEGED

Motor Fatality At Miramar

WOMAN TO STAND TRIAL

A fatal accident which occurred on Broadway, Miramar, on November 12 was recalled in the Magistrates’ Court at Wellington yesterday, when Violet Helen Maud Taylor, single, aged 22, was charged with negligently driving a motor-car thereby causing the death of Kathleen Bensley Thornhill. Accused, who was represented by Mr. W. P. Rollings, pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial.

Sub-Inspector J. A. Dempsey conducted the prosecution. The principal witness for the Crown, Leslie Glenny Smith, radio salesman, said that at about 9.15 p.m. on November 12 he was driving along Broadway in the direction of Seatoun, and when rounding a bend, was overtaken and passed by a ear driven by Miss Taylor. His speedometer was registering 30 miles au hour. Instead of coming back to the left of the road, accused’s car appeared to keep straight on. When it passed him it was travelling about the centre of the road, and after it passed him it appeared to get on to the wrong side. Witness said that when he first saw .Miss Thornhill she was about half-way aOross the road. She was then between one and' two chains ahead .of him. When be first saw her, the ear that passed would be a little short of a chain ahead of him. After«the car had passed him there was no obstruction to prevent it pulling back to the correct side of the road. Miss Thornhill, who was walking at a moderate pace, commenced to run and had only run three or four paces when she was struck.

“From the time that I first saw the woman walking it appeared to me that the driver of the ear was trying to head the woman off, as the car veered slightly to the right,” continued witness. “The woman was struck by the front of the car. The car appeared to slow up slightly just prior to the impact. When she was struck, Miss Thornhill appeared to be about halfway between the extreme right tramrail and the extreme left. kerb. I saw her fall and stopped. The other car wetu to the correct side of the road and stopped further along the road.” Witness said that it was a fine night and visibility was very clear. Cross-examined by Mr. Rollings, lie said that the swing to the right was made by accused just before the impact. It would be between the time Miss Thornhill started to run and the time of the impact. z Ten other witnesses were called in support of the Crown’s case. Mr. Rollings submitted that the case

should not be sent on to a jury because “there was no evidence of negligence on the part of accused.” Substantially, he said, it was a ease of a pedestrian at night running across the roadway into the track of an approaching car. The magistrate: I took it that the motorist was on her wrong side. Mr. Rollings: The accused drove on to the wrong side, but it is clear that the swerve to the wrong side wag made when the woman started to run and in an endeavour to avoid her.

The magistrate said he proposed to commit accused for trial.