DRIVER GUILTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22431, 29 May 1936, Page 14

DRIVER GUILTY

CASE OF NEGLIGENCE DEATH OF THREE MEN RECOMMENDATION TO MERCY [from our own corrkspondf.nt] HAMILTON, Thursday A verdict of guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy, was returned by the jury in tho case in which Leonard ttea.v Grogan, a labourer, aged 20, was charged with negligently driving a motor-truck and causing the deaths of three passengers, William Aikman, Henry Leslie Williams, and William Oliver Lester Jarvis. Defendant was driving a truck from Karamu to Hamilton at G p.m. on March 18 last, and when descending a slope on a bend in the road he collided with a heavily-laden lorry, driven by James Hichard Gore.

Mr. Justice Fair presided. Mr. H. T. Gillies prosecuted for the Crown, and Mr. W. J. King represented defendant. Mr. King submitted that while Grogan admitted having travelled on tho wrong side of the road, the surface was rough and dangerous with a camber that caused vehicles to keep to tho wrong sido It was not suggested that Gore was in any way responsible for tho accident. His Honor said a bad road surface was not an adequate excuse for a motorist travelling on his wrong -<iclc if the risk were increased. The fact that other drivers were careless at tho corner was not a relevant excuse in Grogan's case. The jury visited the scene of the accident, and on giving their verdict, they asked His Honor to bring to the notice of the Baglan County Council the dangerous condition of the camber of the road.