MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21245, 27 July 1932, Page 14

MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

FATAL CROSSING COLLISION PARTY GOING TO DANCE BUS DRIVER DENIES NEGLIGENCE [by telegraph —PRESS association] WELLINGTON, Tuesday A motor-lorry, converted into a bus, which was taking a party of young people to a dance at ICaituna on the evening of April 9, was struck by an express from Wellington at the Renall Street crossing, Masterton, and one of the passengers, Frank Muirhead Gillespie, was ' killed. The driver of the vehicle, James Thomas Rutherford, stood his trial in the Supreme Court to-day on a charge of manslaughter laid under the Crimes Act, and on, a charge of negligent driving, thereby causing death, under the Motor Vehicles Act. Mr. Justice Reed was on the bench. Sydney Herbert, driver of the train, said, from an engine-driver's point of view, the crossing was not a dangerous one. It appeared to him that Rutherford accelerated just before ho came to the line, and it was then too late for him to stop. Victor Woodley, Elsie May Saker and James Henry Garrett, passengers in the bus, said they saw the train before the bus reached the crossing, and, in their opinion, if Rutherford had been keeping | a proper look-out, he should have seen ; the train in time to pull up. ! Accused said he had been driving motor vehicles since 1919. On reaching College Street, ho saw lights which he took ! to be those of a train away in the dis- j tance, and he thought he had ample time | to cross the line before the train reached j the Renall Street crossing. He did net see the train until it was upon them. The lorry was an old one and it was difficult to hear the whistle of an engine. If a motorist were to halt at the stop sign, he would get no view of the train until it was on the crossing. 110 would not admit any negligence or want of care. He had taken every precaution. . I The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow. j