NEGLIGENCE CHARGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 78, 29 September 1938, Page 6

NEGLIGENCE CHARGE

YOUTH BEFORE COURT

FATAL ACCIDENT ON BROOKLYN ROAD

The accident on the Brooklyn Road on the night of July 16, which resulted in the death of William Samuel Ridler, led to the appearance in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., of Charles Bruce Pierson, a motor-trimmer, aged 18, who was charged with negligent driving causing death.

Senior-Sergeant D. J. O'Neill prosecuted, and Mr. R. L. A. Cresswell appeared for Pierson.

Details of measurements he had taken at the scene of the accident were given by Philip Wallis Vautier, surveyor, and photographs of the scene of the accident and of the damaged vehicle were prodi^ced by Con. stable S. T. Wills.

Arthur James Ridler, public servant, son of the, deceased, said his father, who was aged 73, was iri good health, and had good .Jhearing and eyesight, except that he had lost his left eye.

Thbmas George Smith, a taxi-driver; said he was on a taxi-stand in Nairn Street at 7 p.m. on July 16, and on the right-hand side, facing down Nairn Street, almost on the junction with Willis Street. He was seated at the wheel talking to another taxi-driver. He saw a car moving south along Willis Street, and noticed that the left headlamp of the car, which was travelling at about 35 m.p.h., was not burning. It turned into Brooklyn Road, and he noticed a man in the light, of the headlamp. He was struck by the radiator of the car, fell over the lefthand mudguard, and rolled into the road. He could judge speed, said witness. The night was a -good one for driving, the road surface was dry, but visibility was not good. WEARING DARK CLOTHES, To Mr. Cresswell witness said that the driver to whom he was talking was sitting in the left-hand rear seat of his car. The car had a radio, but it was not on. Visibility at the corner was bad from a motorist's point of view, and the pedestrian was wearing dark clothing. From his own experience he would say it' was frequently difficult for a motorist at night to see a pedestrian in dark clothing on a bitumen road. •/■.'" Alan Frank Goodacre, a taxi-driver, who stated that he was seated in the previous witness's car, said that the first he saw of Pierson's car was when it was in the turn from Willis Street into Brooklyn Road, quite close to where he was sitting. In his estimation the speed of the car war, round about 35 m.p.h., and it was the speed which attracted his attention. He watched the car go round the corner, and the' next thing he heard was an impact. He noticed a body come over the left-hand side of the car, and the impact of the car seemed to carry the body along a little distance. Witness described how he had summoned ambulance and police, and had afterwards visited the scene of the accident. He had pointed out to the.police several positions on the road,

The car was moved after the accident on account of traffic, said witness. It was pushed to the side of the road. He was sitting on the right-hand rear seat of Smith's taxi, and did not see the pedestrian at, all before he was struck. Lighting was very poor at this spot. . -

To Senior-Sergeant O'Neill, witness said he could recall that the deceased was wearing a dark "suit.

John Shorthouse Russell, a storeman, said that pn JuJX'l6 he walked down Nairn Street across Brooklyn . Road to Willis Street, and continued in a northerly direction. A car passed him, making a noise, and he turned and looked, just getting a glimpse as ' it passed a stationary car. He had not taken more than a few steps when he heard a crash. After the impact he saw two men and two women running to the scene, and he ,also went back. The man was lying at the side of the tram line, a woman was at his head, and the accused was also down on his knees. i ■ A BAD CORNER. The corner was undoubtedly a bad one, said witness to counsel. The spot where the car passed him was just before the slope of the road steepened, i The women he saw, he thought, had come down the street and not from a house. He felt ' the pulse of the injured man, but noticed no. smell of liquor. George Harry Rabe, an ambulance driver, described the injuries received by the deceased. He' described the lighting at the corner as very poor. There was no smell of liquor at all. James Alexander Shaw, motor vehicle inspector, described an examination he had made of the vehicle, Asuming that the car was stopped on a level bitumen road in 84& feet, using footbrake alone, it would be doing less than 30 miles per hour, said witness to Mr. Cresswell. That would appear to indicate approximately 27 or 28 miles per hour. If the pressure applied were less than he used in his tests the speed would be slower still. There was an error of about five miles per hour in the speedometer of the car, and an inexperienced driver who was driving this car would think he was driving at 20 miles per hour, while his actual speed was 25 or 26 miles per. hour.

To Senior-Sergeant O'Neill, witness said the impact would have a tendency to reduce the speed slightly. After the hearing of the evidence, Mr. Cresswell entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of his client, and stated that he would not offer evidence at this stage.

Pierson was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail was allowed.