NEGLIGENT DRIVING ALLEGED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 244, 13 July 1939, Page 5

NEGLIGENT DRIVING ALLEGED

Death Of Three People In

Road Smash

MOTORIST TO STAND TRIAL

By Telegraph— Association,

HAMILTON, July 12.

Three charges of negligent driving causing death were preferred against Louis Carlo Appleton, aged 24, carrying contractor, Pongakawa, in the Huntly Magistrates’ Court today. The prosecution arose out of a collision between a car driven by the accused and another car occupied by John Staples, aged 59, boot manufacturer, Wellington. Florence Staples, aged 46, his wife, Frances Carnegie, aged 22, Wellington, and Arthur Staples, aged 24, traincar body builder, Wellington, which occurred on _ the main south road, near Ohinewai on the afternoon of April 8. As a result of the collision Mr. and Mrs. Staples an'd Miss Carnegie died and Arthur Staples was seriously injured. Four occupants of the other car, the accused, and Charles Henry Reid, aged 25 lorry driver, Matata, Myra Clark, aged 18, and Natalie Clark, aged 19, Te Puke, were also injured. The inquest was held contemporaneously with the hearing of the case. Speed of Car. Evidence was given by one of the female occupants of the car driven by the accused that the speed of the car reached 70 miles an hour at times, it being speeded up in bursts to locate a fault in the engine. The driver, she contended, was not showing signs of liquor. Francis Thomas Bryant, plasterer, Wellington, who was following the Staples’s car, said that a large car approached from the opposite direction at 60 miles an hour on the wrong side of the road. The Staples’s car was travelling at 30 miles an hour on its correct side, swerving further to the left just before the collision. Witness said that he smelt liquor on the accused. J. E. Ainsworth, chief traffic inspector, said that marks on the road showed that a vehicle had been travelling on its wrong side of the road and had been driven at a high speed. Dr. Jamieson, Huntly, said he detected a smell of alcohol on Appleton’s breath, but he thought he was in a fit state to drive a car. Passenger’s Evidence. Charles Henry Reid, motor driver, Matata, gave evidence that he accompanied the accused and the Clark sisters from Te Puke. He and Appleton had one drink at Te Puke and another at Tauranga. Witness bought six bottles of beer at Cambridge. The accused did not have a drink there or at Hamilton. Witness said that he nnd Appleton had a drink each at Ngaruawahia. He did not think the speed of the car exceeded 40 miles an hour. Appleton was driving at this pace after passing Ohinewai, and slowed down to from 30 to 35 miles on a bend when the car seemed to swing to the right. Witness saw Staples’s car two feet away and a crash then occurred. . Accused pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court at Hamilton for trial.