OFFICER’S DEATH

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 November 1939, Page 4

OFFICER’S DEATH

MAN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL.

CHRISTCHURCH, November 20

The death of an officer at the Burnham Camp, Captain Andrew Henderson Maciver, when he was knocked down by a horsefloat on the Main South Road near Burnham on October 7, was the basis of a charge heard in the Magistrate’s Court to-day. The accused was Stanley Richardson, a motor- driver, of Ashburton, who was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. He was represented by Mr. P. H. T. Alpers.

The charge against Richardson was that while intoxicated in charge of a motor-truck by an act of omission in relation thereto, he caused the death of Maciver. He was further charged with being intoxicated in charge of the vehicle. Dr. AV. G. Rich, stationed at Burnham, said he had seen Richardson after the accident and had a conversation with him. Richardson had said he had been at the New Brighton trotting meeting and gave a non-committal answer when asked what sort of a day he had had. The only conclusion Dr. Rich had made after the conversation vzas that Richardson was dull.

Constable Peter Fallon, of Lincoln, said that in conversation with the accused at Burnham he could see that he was intoxicated and not fit to be in charge of a motor-car, and he had tofd him so. Dr. F. -L. Scott said that he examined the accused at the Christchurch Police Station. His eyes were slightly inflamed. His speech was slightly thick. He walked along the passage fairly well and the “finger-to-finger“ test was fair. There was a strongsmell of liquor on his breath. Witness’s opinion ( was that it was a borderline case with the doubt against the accused. He considered that witness was not fit to drive a motor-car and witness would not have cared to be a passenger in a car driven by him. Asked if he wished to see another doctor, witness said that he did not think it was worth while.

Major Frederick Cameron, principal medical officer at the Burnham Camp, said that neither of the two officers injured in the accident showed any trace of having had liquor.

Janes Banbury Clive Geere-Watson, who was walking with Maciver when they were struck by the horse-float, said that both Maciver and himself were walking on the shingle off the bitumen. It was their invariable practice, he said, to edge further away from the bitumen when they heard traffic approaching. Albert Roderick Bartlett, of Ashburton, who was a passenger in the horsefloat, said that when the truck stopped at the Rolleston Hotel, witness and another man tried to get in the hotel, but a woman who came to the door refused to let them in. The driver of the truck then came over to witness and the other man and got them to go back to the truck, which drove off. Richardson then appeared quite sober. The lights were burning. The speed of the truck was between 25 and 30 miles an hour. The lights had been dipped to pass another car, and as they were turned up again two men appeared in view about six or seven yards in front. They were walking between the centre and the edge of the bitumen. The truck, which was braked slowly, went perhaps 30 or 40 yards down the road after striking the man on the outside, before it was pulled. From when they left Rolleston until Burnham was reached, no bottles were handed round in the cab of the truck, and witness knew nothing of a broken bottle beingfound near the scene of the accident. After further police evidence had been called, the accused was committed for trial. He pleaded not guilty. The inquest into the death bf Maciver was heard after the hearing in the Magistrate’s Court of the charges against Richardson. A verdict was returned by the Coroner (Mr. E. C. Levvey) that death was due to concussion of the brain, caused when he was struck from behind by a motor-truck driven by Richardson on the Main South Road on October 7.