MOTORMAN ON TRIAL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 154, 1 June 1937, Page 12

MOTORMAN ON TRIAL

CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER. DEATH OF PEDESTRIAN. Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, May 31. The Supremo Court, over which Mr Justice Kennedy presided, to-day was engaged in hearing evidence in the case in which Alfred Chapman, aged 35, tramway motorman, was charged with committing manslaughter, in that he killed John Kenny. The charge, to which accused pleaded not guilty, arose out of an accident in Signal Hill Opoho, on the morning of April 15, when a tram driven by Chapman left the rails and plunged through a fence, fatally injuring Kenny, who was walking on the footpath. The hearing of evidence for the Crown occupied the whole of the day, and the case for the defence will he commenced when the court resumes to-morrow morning In his address to the jury the Crown prosecutor said the charge against accused was upon the single count of manslaughter. The charge was based solely on negligence and the allegation of the Crown was therefore that by negligence accused brought about the death of John Kenny.

Dr. Dickie, house surgeon at Dunedin Hospital, described Kenny’s injuries when he was admitted to hospital. . Thomsa Alfred Biggs, mechanical engineer, employed by the city corporation tramways department, said he was walking down Signal Hill Road and saw the car as it reached Roxburgh Street. It was travelling much faster than the usual pace at that point and was swaying. It then jumped the rails, ran 30 to 40 yards on the street, then turned to the right, ran over the footpath and crashed through a fence. Kenny was walking down the footpath. He hesitated, evidently realising there was something wrong with the tram, and just before it hit him he seemed to step backward as though to avpid it. The tram came to rest in a section on its wheels. Visibility was fairly goodWhen the tram turned off the rails it was travelling at 30 or 40 miles an hour. Charles Herbert Tlionnson, medical student, who was a passenger oil the back platform of the tram, said it soon gathered speed after leaving the terminus. He could tell that the magnetic brake was not working and about 30 yards above Roxburgh Street he saw the motorman working the hand brake. The tram left the rails shortly below Roxburgh Street and witness was thrown off just before it stopped in the section. Corroborative evidence was given by other passengers on the car.

W. H. MacKenzie, tramways manager, said that an investigation subsequent to the accident revealed nothing wrong with the brakes or with the track. . , , , , This evidence was corroborated b.y Maurice Ordist Fairhurst, plant overseer. Public Works Department, and William Davis Richards, engineer in the tramways department. Evidence for the defence will be heard to-morrow.