DRIVER ACQUITTED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21807, 23 May 1934, Page 14

DRIVER ACQUITTED

SEQUEL TO FATALITY CHIEF JUSTICE'S COMMENT [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION"] NEW PLYMOUTH, Tuesday On a charge of negligent driving so as to cause death, Eric James Baxter, sawmiller, of Waekanae, was acquitted by a jury in the Supremo Court to-day. The charge arose from an accident at Lepperton in December, when a car driven by Baxter crashed through the side of a railway overhead bridge on to the lino. Patrick Newton, an employee of Baxter, received fatal injuries. The jury added to its verdict a rider that the bridge was dangerous, a fact which should be brought to the notice of the authorities. The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, advised Baxter to refrain in the future from drinking when driving. It might well bo thought, ho added, that a man •who, 'when driving a car, took in the space of a little moro than three hours nine alcoholic drinks was not a fit and proper person to bo entrusted with a driver's licence. Whatever a driver's conduct, tho Court had no jurisdiction to deal with his licence unless there had been a conviction for certain offences under tho Motor Vehicles Act.