MOTORIST TO STAND TRIAL

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 28 January 1933, Page 10

MOTORIST TO STAND TRIAL

accident near opunake. NEGLIGENT DRIVING ALLEGED. Following an accident near Opunake on June, 18, when William Ross Cochrane, a young cy T clist, sustained a broken leg in a collision with a- motor car. Arthur William Lowe, driver of the car, was committed to the Supreme Court for trial at the Opunake Court yesterday on a charge of negligently driving a motor car so as to cause actual bodily harm. Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., was on the bench. Constable G. Clouston prosecuted. Lowe was represented by Mr. A. Chrystal. Cochrans-, a farm labouier ol xO Kiri, who appeared in court on crutches, deposed that on June 18 he was coming from To Kin to Opunake on a push bicycle betwen 6.30 and 7 n.m. It was dark, but he had an electric lio-ht worked from a sma.ll dynamo on his bicycle. About two miles from Opunake he met a motor-car which came round a bend in the middle or the road straight towards linn. rlie car had lights. Cochrane- was on his correct side of the road, but the cat, which appeared to come across the road, was on its wrong side when A struck him. Cochrane vvas thrown on to the roadside. The car stopped m a short distance. Some one came back and asked if lie vvas hurt. Cochrane vvas later taken to the hospital by Mr Hickey. Cochrane had been i .ding about 18 inches or two feet from i laedge of the tar. , . It vvas a cloudy night but Got-nrane would not say that it was- misty, the visibility on the road not belli" br.o. His leg was broken and a rib was fractured, but he did not sustain concussion, retaining consciousness throughout. The point of impact would be off the tar seal. The collision was not head-on, the bicycle being struck on the right-hand side at an angle Mr. Chrystal pointed out that the appearance of the bicycle indicated a head-on collision. Constable Clouston remarked that the bicycle had been carried several yards by the ear. . ' Cochrane said he had no idea ot the speed of the car. He was seven months in hospital and was still under the doctor’s care. PASSENGER’iS VERSION. Thomas Henry Coupe, sawmill «niployee, Te Kiri, a passenger in the car with Lowe at the time of the accident, vvas seated in the back of the car. It had been raining, he said, and the visibility vvas bad. He saw no lio-hts, the first indication of the accident being a bang. Lowe stopped the ear and they went back, finding.. man in the watertable with a broken ten-. Lowe would be travelling at from 18 to 20 miles an hour, The c" had lights. At the time of the smash the car would be about the middle ol the road. After the accident the even vvas over towards the hedge on Lowe a I ngut-hand sul**. Coupe did not see tut I cycle under the car as he was attend • in"- to the injured man. Ihe bend I was banked on Cochrane’s- right-hanc | side. The engine dicl not stop ar..ei the accident. * „ J . . ~ Coupe could see the reflection of tlie I two car lights on the wet bitumen 1 road. The car would not start alter I the accident as the battery was pretto ! lovv, the lights taking all the current, i The self-starter would not function He considered the lights were good 1 while the car was running. They look - ed for the bicycle lamp, but could not find part of it. ~ . i Coupe said he picked up the lam] after the accident and several othei peopto examined it to see if it had been burning. John Richard Mildenhall, motor mechanic, Te Iviri, another passengei in the car sitting m a dickey seat at the back, agreed that visibility vvas bad. When coming round the ben< ‘ the first he noticed of the bicycle was when he saw the car lights reflected on jtlie handle-bars. The car was " about the middle of the road, vvlnle the ’ bicycle was between the middle of the road and the side. The cyclist was ! moving across the road evidently to get 1 on to his correct side. The cycle hit the car between the lamps and the ‘ mudguard. Mildenhall did not notice ‘ anv Tight on the bicycle. Lowe was 1 well in the middle of the road as. ! lie rounded the corner. Mildenhall ana . Lowe removed the bicycle from under ; Che car after they had all been back I to the injured man, with whom Coupe stayed. • , , , ri ,i - The point of impact might be a little * olf the middle of the road.. The car . would be travelling about 20 miles an ) hour prior to tho collision. The bicycle was about 12 feet away when - Mildenhall first saw it. The . car was 4 stopped in about its own length aftei l the impact. He did not take any stepsto ascertain whether the bicycle lamp had been alight. He was more concerned with getting the injured man j to hospital.

COUNSEL OBJECTS TO PLAN. Constable Cluoston put in a plan ol tne iscene of the accident. It had been prepared- from information given by cue two following witnesses. Mr. Chrystal objected to the admission of the plan. , ~ The magistrate upheld the objection, pointing out that the constable could draw a plan and ask the witness tc mark thereon the point of impact. A person who vvas not there could not indicate the point of impact. Albert Michael Hickey, farmer, Eltiiam Road, residing about 100 yards from the scene of the accident, deposed that on hearing the crash_ of glass alirl someone cry out about 7.3( p.m., lie and his brother went to the scene of the, accident, witness later taking the injured man to the hospital. Hickey marked on a plan the position? of the car and bicycle. That showed that Lowe was on the, wrong isido of the road. V/sibilitv was poor that night. Hickey saw tho glass that showed the point of impact about an hour alter tliP accident. The glass vvas distributed about thirteen yards along the road.

Mr Chrystal pointed out only one lamp had been broken and the windscreen was intact.

It was possible the glass was swept off the road prior to his seeing it. Hickey said. Next morning ho saw a scratch on the side of the road along the bitumen. That mark could have been made by the bicycle. Mr. Chrvistal: It could have been made by anything. Dickey said there was a mark on the. left-hand pedal of the bicycle That might have caused it. He did not feel the cycle lamp immediately after the accident. Part of it could not he found. Egmont Stephen Hickey gave, corroborative evidence. The glass he saw was tinted lamp glass. Counsel submitted that the case was not one that should have been brought as an indictable one. Ho considered that at th<> most the evidence showed that defendant was only slightly on his incorrect side, whereas he thought that there probably no light on Ihe bicycle. He suggested that it was a proper case to bring under the moto’ regulations, when the evidence heard that day could be used. The magistrate isaid he must eopirn it Lowe for trial, and in view of that fact would not comment on