DEATHS OF TWO YOUTHS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21505, 31 May 1933, Page 12

DEATHS OF TWO YOUTHS

FATAL MOTOR COLLISION ALLEGATION OF NEGLIGENCE TRUCK DRIVER CHARGED [fkom OUR OWN correspondent] HAMILTON, Tuesday The case in which Clifton George Daw is charged with negligent driving, thereby causing the deaths of two youths 011 a motor-cycle as the result of a collision, was commenced before Mr. Justice Herdman and a jury in the Supreme Court at Hamilton to-day. The accident occurred on the Cam-bridge-Tirau Road about eight mites from Cambridge on January 14, both the motor-cyclist, George Alexander Wad ha in, and the pillion rider, Noel Joseph Anderson, receiving fatal injuries. When the case came before the Supreme Court at the last Hamilton sessions the jury was unable to reach an agreement and a new trial was ordered.

The Crown solicitor, Mr. Gillies, prosecuted and Mr. King appeared for accused. Bad State of the Road Dr. H. C. Todd, of Cambridge, detailed the injuries received by the two youths. He considered the surface of the road at the place where the accident occurred was the worst in the district. Accufied's truck was lying obliquely across the road, with its bonnet on the correct side and the rear of the vehicle on the wrong side. Constable A. Doel, of Cambridge, said he found the motor-cycle wedged against the front of the truck. Tho tyre tracks showed that Daw's vehicle had travelled for some distance on the incorrect side of the road before crossing over to the left prior to the collision. The skid marks showed that the truck pulled up in about its own length. James Edward McGehan, clerk, of Auckland, a passenger in Daw's truck, said the truck was on the incorrect side approaching the point of impact. As soon as Daw saw tho motor-cyclist, he swerved to his correct side, but just before the crash the " motor-cycle appeared to wobble in tho loose metal and swerve to its wrong side. Tho motorcyclist was about 40ft. away on his correct side when Daw applied the brake.

A motor-cycle dealer, Frank Ibbotson, said the long wheelbase of the deceased Wadham's machine would make it difficult to control in loose metal in the event of a skid. Cycle's Track Examined Harry Taylor, railway employee, said the track of the motor-cycle for about 50 yards back was of a "wobbly" nature and near the crown of the road on the incorrect side. He described the condition of the road as shocking. In evidence, accused said there was no traffic in sight when he first went to the wrong side of the road. When he first saw the motor-cycle it was about 130 yards away and witness immediately sweved over to his correct side. As the motor-c.ycle kept to the middle of the road, he applied his brakes and slopped about 3ft. from the side. When 10 yards distant the motorcycle skidded and collided with the stationary truck. The case was adjourned until to-mor-row morning, when the jury will inspect the scene of the accident.