FATAL CRASH

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 107, 9 May 1938, Page 11

FATAL CRASH

TRUCK OVER BANK

DRIVER ON TRIAL

A fatal moWr accident at Tauherenikau on the afternoon of Saturday, February 12, was the basis of a charge made in the Supreme Court today against William Robert Thomson, aged 48, a cordial factory employee. Thomson, who stood his trial before Mr. Justice Reed and a jury of twelve, pleaded not guilty to the charge of negligently driving a motor-truck, thereby causing the death of Thomas Cudlip. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr. W. H. Cunningham) conducted the prosecution, and Mr. H. Lawson and Mr. J. B. Aimers appeared for the defence. Outlining the case for the Crown, Mr. Cunningham said that at about 4.20 p.m. on Saturday, February 12, the police were called to the southern approach to the bridge over the Tauherenikau River on the main highway about a mile or two out of Featherston. There they found a truck belonging to a Featherston cordial factory, where the accused worked, down a bank on the south side of the river. It was obvious that the truck had run into one of the approaches to the bridge. At the scene of the accident were the accused, another man, and the deceased, Cudlip, who had received fatal head injuries. Evidence for the Crown would be that the accused had admitted being the driver and that he had had drink, though a doctor would say he was not unfit to drive. The accused's explanation, continued Mr. Cunningham, was that a green sedan car had come off the bridge at a fairly fast pace, and on its wrong side, as he approached it. That caused him to swerve suddenly into the guard rail of the bridge and go down the bank. The other man in the cab besides the accused and Cudlih would say that he did not see any motor vehicle coming off the bridge. Two other witnesses in the vicinity at the time saw no such car as was described by the accused, and exhaustive inquiries and'publicity had not revealed such a car. There was no doubt that between lunch time and 4 p.m. the accused had spent a considerable time in a .hotel, and he admitted to one person having had four shandies and to another having had five beers. Evidence for the Crown was given along the lines of Mr. Cunningham's statement. The case is proceeding.