MOTORIST CHARGED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 21, 25 July 1939, Page 11

MOTORIST CHARGED

INJURIES TO WOMAN

NEGLIGENCE ALLEGED

The knocking down of a 71-year-old woman and two young girls on the pedestrian crossing at, the corner of Buckle Street and Cambridge Terrace on October 28 was the basis of a charge of negligent driving catising injury against Leonard ■ Jacobs Stokes, a railway employee, aged forty-five, in the Supreme Court today, before Mr. Justice Reed and a jury. The charge concerned only, the woman, Mrs. Jessie Smart, whose legs were broken and who subsequently died.

Mr. W. H. Cunningham appeared for the Crown,' and his opening address was unfinished when the Court rose for lunch. Mr. Evan Parry appeared for Stokes.

Mr. Cunningham said that Mrs. Smart had died since the injuries were inflicted, but the accused was , not j charged with causing death. Questions would arise as to whether the vehicle was in a reasonable state of repair, and whether the brakes were 1 On' October 28 Mrs. Smart went to meet her six-year-old granddaughter, who attended the convent in Buckle Street, and intended to take her home to Newtown. The girl was accompanied by another child, aged seven, and' Mrs. Smai't, whose depositions were taken in hospital, said she waited until the road, as far as she could see, was clear before usirig the crossing. .She held her grand-daughter by the hand and the other girl followed behind. At about the middle of the' crossing all three seemed to have been knocked down; the children were not seriously hurt', but Mrs. Smart had both legs broken, one near the hip and'the other near the knee. The left headlamp of the accused's car was found to be bent.

Evidence would be given by the driver of a car following the accused's car that the woman and the children were about the middle of the crossing when the accused knocked them down. The case is proceeding:.