THE TAXI FATALITY,

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16358, 30 September 1913, Page 5

THE TAXI FATALITY,

ECHO OF SUPREME COURT TRIAL

DRIVER'S LICENSE DISCUSSED. • An echo of the trial on a charge of manslaughter of Phillip James Kelly, who collided with a young lady while driving a taxicab in Cashel Street east, and was acquitted at his trial, was raised before the City Council last night, when a motion was tabled to withdraw his license.

The matter was raised by Councillor J. M'Combs, who requested that a letter from the Women's Institute should be road. The letter asked the Council to consider the advisability of cancelling the driver's license. Councillor J. M'Combs moved that the license should be cancelled. He did not wish to see the man punished, he said, hut the public should he safeguarded, especially as the Magistrate had commented on the fact that Kelly had been driving at an excessive speed. The driver Kelly had been dismissed from the Christchurch Tramway Board because of a ' head-on collision, and, whether he was to blame or not, the Board had a wise provision that any driver in a head-on collision should be discharged. Councillor G. Scott seconded the motion.

Councillor H. B. Soronsen said thai the By-laws Committee, with the exception of Councillor M'Conibs, had decided to givo the driver another chance. As a- matter of fact the committee had no ground on which to withhold the license. Tlie Supreme Court had acquitted him of culpable negligence. The committee was not a revising committee of public justice, and he questioned whether it was :n good taste for Councillor M'Combs to bring the matter up in the way he had done.

Councillor H. Hunter said that the driver had been before the committee and had been warned. As for the headon collision it was a very trivial oneA car had run out of a cross street and a collision had been inevitable. If anything was going to make Kelly a careful driver ft was the recent accident.

Councillor H. D. Acland said that it was extremely unfortunate that the matter should be brought up again. The case had been tried by a. court of justice, and any motion of tlie kind indicated would be a. great reflection on a valuable institution which had taken a great deal of building up. Councillor F. Burgoyne supported the view of Councillor Sorensen, and Councillor J. M'Cullough ■ sriid that the Council had no right whatever to say to Kelly that he had to get out of his job. The Mayor said that Kelly when he had appeared boforo the committee had felt his position keenly. Accidents were bound to happen, and he believed, from what Kelly had said, that the accident would not have happened if it had not been for a sudden swerve by the young lady riding the cycle. He felt that the committee had dealt properly with the man, who had a family to maintain, and should not be deprived of his livelihood. Councillor M'Combs said that the Council should follow the example of the Tramway Board in dismissing r.n employee for a collision. The Union Steam Ship Company did the same thing with its masters when they were involved in an accident. They were discharged. 'The motion .was rejected,;:<>nly, the mover and seconder voting for it.