MOTORING VICTIMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 May 1936, Page 7

MOTORING VICTIMS

i- SHIP-FIREMAN’S TRIAL i ■ QUESTION OF NEGLIGENCE i — [per press association.] WELLINGTON, May 8. i The trial of William Mcßeynolds, i aged 28, a ship’s fireman, on a charge o£ negligently driving a motor car, thereby causing the deaths of Charles Bradshaw and Ernest Marston, was continued in the Wellington Supreme Court, to-day. Mr. Justice Blair presided. The accident occurred on the Hutt Road on the evening of February 29 last, when Bradshaw, a grocer’s assistant, aged 21, of Patea, was riding a motor-cycle, and Marston, aged 43, a painter and paperhariger, of Petone, was pillion riding. They were travelling from Petone to Wellington. The case for the Crown, which was represented by Mr. C. Scott, opened on Thursday morning, and concluded shortly after the luncheon adjournment yesterday. Mr. M. G. Neal appeared for McReynolds, who pleaded not guilty. The defence raised was that the collision was caused by the negligence of Bradshaw, it being contended that McReynolds was forced into a position on the wrong side of the road through the action of the driver of another car in accelerating as Mcßeynolds attempted to pass. Bradshaw, it was submitted, knew the source of danger al- ; ready created, but, nevertheless, pulled out suddenly from behind another car and accelerated.

The hearing was interrupted by the adjournment. The case will be continued on Monday.

POLICE METHODS CRITICISED. WELLINGTON, May 8. Allegations against the conduct of the police were made and complaints against the publication of the Lower Court evidence were repeated to-day at the Supreme Court, in Wellington in a motor fatality case. Mr M. G. Neal, counsel for the defence, said that if ever an accused person had been prejudiced it was the accused. The report of the evidence in the Lower Court had occupied a good deal of space in the newspapers. He had heard the case discussed in trams and elsewhere. Mr Justice Blair: You can’t give evidence. All these cases of course, are reported in the newspapers. Mr Neal said that the reports only gave one side of the case. He did not suggest that any blame was attachable. to the newspaper, but did complain about the police. It was within the power of the prosecution to produce all available evidence, and that had not been done. The prosecution had stood by and allowed an injustice to be done to the accused. Statements had begn given to the police which contradicted certain evidence, yet those statements were not produced at the inquest. That alone disclosed an injustice. .. His Honor said that the function of the Coroner was to ascertain the cause of death and not to apportion the blame.

Mr Neal: If there was evidence available which was not called, and 1 submit there was, then, an injus-

tice was done to the accused because the reports of the inquest were not correct reports. His Honor: You appear to assume that an inquest is held tor the purpose of apportioning the blame. “Nothing of the kind,” Mr Neal said. He added that a witness would tell the jury that, when he suggested to the police that he should be called at the inquest, statements were made to him in derogation of the accused’s character.

His Honor: That was nothing whatever to do with this case. I am not trying the conduct of the police, and I am not going to allow the jury, tp be bothered with a whole lot of irrelevances of that kind. I am not interested in the sins of the police.

NAVAL OFFICER FINED

WELLINGTON, May 8,

Ninian Scott Elliott, Lieutenant of H.M.S. Leith, was fined £lO and his driving license was cancelled' till the end of the month for driving at a speed and in a manner that might have been dangerous to the public. The evidence showed that he had been followed at a speed of over 70 m.p.h. on the road beyond Upper Hutt, but he could not be overtaken. Eliott did not appear, but it was stated that, when 'interviewed), he said he thought the other car wanted a race.

It also appeared from the evidence that a watch was set for his car, about which there had been a complaint. The accused had stated that he was in the habit of renting cars at each port of call. It was admitted that he was “another case of a nautical road hog.” AKAROA MAN KILLED CHRISTCHURCH, May S. Lincoln George Armstrong, aged 20, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Armstrong, of Akaroa and a grandson of the late Mr. George Armstrong, for thirty years Mayor of Akaroa, was killed instantly in a car smash about seven o’clock last evening on the Tai Tapu-Akaroa main highway. In the car, which belonged to a rental firm, were Mr. Armstrong, his elder brother, Edward, who was driving, and five women, one of whom was Miss Freda Davis, daughter of Mr. F. R. E. Davis, Mayor of Akaroa. The party left Christchurch about 6 p.m. on their way to attend a dance at Pigeon Bay, where Mrs. Armstrong and her other sons were awaiting their arrival.

It is stated that, approaching a culvert on the main road, about a mile and a-half past Tai Tapu, the driver saw a car approaching some distance away from the opposite direction. Visibility was bad at the time, and the next thing the driver knew was that he was almost on to the culvert. The driver realised that he had to swing to the centre of the road to avoid a smash, but the left-hand side of the car struck the side of the culvert with the result that the machine somersaulted sideways and came to rest yards away from the point of impact. Mr. Lincoln Armstrong was catapulted partly through the roof, and when the car rolled over he was terribly injured about the head and was killed instantly. Though severely shaken, the other occupants of the car escaped Injury. .......