NEGLIGENT DRIVING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20710, 1 November 1930, Page 15

NEGLIGENT DRIVING.

DEATH OF MAN CAUSED.

MOTORIST FINED £l5O.

FOUR YEARS' SUSPENSION

| BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON. Friday.

A pica of guilty to the count of negligently driving a motor-car at Petone on September 10 and thereby causing the death of Marco William Humphrey, was entered by Clarence Douglas Hector Orr, a railway porter, aged 24, in the Supreme Court to-day before Mr. Justice Blair. Orr was also charged with manslaughter. Tlio Crown prosecutor, Mr. P. S. K. Macassey, said that ho would accept the plea on tho minor count. Mr. H. F. O'Leary, for the prisoner, said that Orr had pleaded guilty on his advice. Ho had realised it was inevitable that the jury would convict. Orr's parents had given hiin tho car and he was in the habit of taking his friends out in it. On this occasion there were six people in the car and probably he had been talking and had overlooked for a few moments his responsibility as the driver. It was admitted that there was a little liquor in the car but counsel suggested that Orr could not havo been affected, as tho police were on * the scene soon after the accident and he would have been arrested if ho had been under the influence of drink. Counsel asked the Court to consider imposing a penalty by way of a fine and cancellation of the licence.

His Honor said he thought accused was well advised to plead guilty. It seemed that the jury must have found him guilty on one or other of tho charges, «. He did not think the case was one for imprisonment, and he knew from his own experience of juries that they very much resented imprisonment being imposed in such cases unless they were exceptionally grave. In (lie present case there was no element of deliberate recklessness. Orr would have to pay a substantial fine, £l5O, in default three months' imprisonment.

Seven days were allowed for payment of the fine. Orr's licence was ordered to be suspended, and he was disqualified from holding a licenco for four years after its expiration.