CLAIM FOR £3000

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 109, 10 May 1934, Page 13

CLAIM FOR £3000

MOTOR-CYCLIST LOSES LEG

COLLISION AFTER MIDNIGHT

To recover £ 3000 by way of general and special damages allegedly caused by the car of Stanley Herbert Powell, of Lower- Hutt, taxi-driver, colliding with him on the Main Road, Lower Hutt, on January 9 last, Russel James Lewis Hayston, a minor, of Taita, is proceeding against Powell in the Supreme Court today before his Honour Mr. Justice Reed and a jury. Hayston junior, is suing through his father, Percy Hayston, of Upper Hutt, farmer, who is also suing on his own behalf. Mr. O. ,C. Mazengarb and Mr. H. J. V. James appear for plaintiffs, and Mr. J. B. Callan, K.C., and Mr. W. P. Rollings for defendant. ■The- plaintiff's case as outlined by counsel was that Hayston, junior, was returning to Taita along the Main Road between 12.30 and 12.40 a.m., riding a motor-cycle with his brother as pillion rider. A car registered in the name of defendant was proceeding towards Lower Hutt, and a collision occurred on the plaintiff's loft-hand side of the road, the riders of the motor-cycle being thrown into a ditch. Counsel described the accident as literally "a running-down case," which caused 'palpably severe injuries" to Hayston junior. Plaintiff suffered a compound fracture of the right leg at the. ankle' and above the knee, severe bruises, and shock. Ho was admitted immediately to the Wellington Hospital, and is still confined to his bed. His right foot had been amputated, and the remaining portion of his right leg was amputated'a fortnight ago. Since the accident he has been confined to his bed, and would never be able to return to his trade as a joiner. In nine months' time, said counsel, an artificial leg would be fitted and plaintiff presumably would be able to walk about. TWO PASSENGERS DISAPPEAR? The disappearance- of two people from the taxi involved in the accident was commented upon by Mr. Mazengarb in his opening address: Two men had been heard talking in the car after the accident, he said, but those men ■had disappeared. The defence denies negligence, and as an alternative defence alleges the accident to have been, due to the negligence of Hayston, jun., in riding a vehicle without sufficient lights, and otherwise.

The marks on the road after the collision were described by Constable C. E. Tanner in evidence. The damage to the cycle generally was on the right-,hand side where the exhaust pipe and tank wcro dented, and the light handle-bar was bent up and forward. The lamp switch was on "dim," There was no fuel in the main socket of the cycle's lamp. .■.-... ■Constable C. J. Dwyer, who arrived at the scene of the accident just after 1 a.m., said a man named Carroll, the driver o£ the taxi, then told witness that the plaintiff had had no light. Witness told Carroll the night was clear and Carroll should have picked up the motor-cycle with his own lights. The plaintiff replied to Carroll that ho had a light on his cycle. The front of the motor-car was imbedded in the ditch where the plaintiff lay groaning. The mark of only one side of the taxi's wheels was discernible on the road. Constable Hoy, Griffiths said Carroll, driver of the taxi, told the constable he had not seen the motor-cyclists coming. Witness examined the "dim" bulb in the headlamp of the motor-cycle and found the filament to be intact. Carroll said there had been two passengers in the taxi at the time of the accident. AVitness did' not know --who they were, and Carroll said he did not know who they were. :'•

The pillion rider,: Mervyn Hayston, brother of the plaintiff,, said that coming .towards' them he noticed a car travelling on its wrong side of the road. The plaintiff veered to the left and applied his brakes. Witness was thrown over his brother's head into the ditch and became unconscious for a time. The driver of the car later came and asked,- "What are you doing on. tho wrong side of the road?" ' The cyclists informed him he was onthe wrong side and he then 'said ho did not know which side of the road ho lras on.

From his bed the plaintiff was brought into the body of the court, and, sitting up oh pillows, ga.ve evidence after the luncheon adjournment.