SEQUEL TO FATALITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22406, 30 April 1936, Page 14

SEQUEL TO FATALITY

NEGLIGENT DRIVING CHARGE MAN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL [by TIILEGRAPH—OWN correspondent] TE AWAMUTU. Wednesday At the Police Court to-day before Messrs. G. A. Empson and J. Anderson, J.P.'s, Arthur Edward Kingsford, a labourer, of East Tamaki, was charged with negligently driving a motor-car, thereby causing the death of James Peacock. Accused was represented by Mr. Sparling, of Auckland. The charge arose out of a fatality on the Main South Road between Te Awamutu and Kihikihi on February 15 last, when deceased and his companions, who were carpenters employed by the Public Works Department at Tokanui Mental Hospital, were returning to Tokanui from Te Awamutu in a car driven by accused. Near the Te Awamutu borough boundary the car capsized and Peacock was killed instantaneously.

Norman McLennan, a lorry-driver, of Te Awamutu, said that he was driving a lorry from Kihikihi to Te Awamutu. When ho -was negotiating a bend near the Te Awamutu borough boundary he! saw a car approaching him on its wrong side. The car swerved to avoid a collision and in doing so left the road and capsized. Tho car did not strike his lorry. Accused, in a statement, set out in detail tho events of the afternoon. He had had some refreshment, but was not under the influence of liquor, nor was he driving at an excessive speed. Near the corner he saw a big six-wheeled lorry approaching at a fast pace. His car skidded as he swerved to avoid the lorry. Ho was an experienced driver and had since learned that the car he was driving that day was inclined to skid at times.

After formal police and medical evidence had been given accused pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court at Hamilton for trial. Bail was allowed, accused lodging £IOO as security.