TWO CHARGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23002, 1 April 1938, Page 8

TWO CHARGED

NEGLIGENCE ALLEGED DRIVING OF MOTOR-CAR CHILD'S FATAL INJURIY BKOTHEIiS FOR TRIAL [from our own correspondent] MORRINSVILLE, Thursday Two brothers, occupants of the same motor-car at the time of a fatal accident, wero both charged at Morrinsvillo to-day with negligently driving the vehicle so as to cause death. A contention that there could be only one driver of a car was not upheld by the magistrate.

The prosecution was conducted at the same time as the inquest, which concerned the death of Phyllis Audrey Manvood, aged five, who was fatally injured when struck by a motor-car at Mangateparu, near Morrinsvillle, on February 23. The coroner was Mr. F. W. Platts.

The owner of the car, James Alfred .Tones, and his brother; Albert Thomas Jones, who was driving the car at the time of the accident, were both charged before Mr. S. L. Pater son, S.M., with negligently driving a motor-car. therebv causing the child's death. Ride Home From School Constable J. MeMullan represented the police and Mr. E; McGregor appeared for the defendants. Mr, A. Necdham watched proceedings on behalf of the child's parents, Mir. and Mrs. W. G. Marwood.

Evidence was given that, the child had been given a ride home from school by a teacher, Miss C. F. Power, who stopped her car in front of the child's home, about four miles from Morrinsville. As the child ran across the road she was struck by a car approaching from the other direction and driven by Albert Thomas Jones, who, with James Alfred Jones, was returning from Morrinsville to their farm at Tauhei. The child suffered severe injuries and died before the #axii in which she was being taken to Hamilton reached the hospital.

The coroner returned a verdict that the child died while being conveyed to the' Waikato Hospital, from injuries suffered at Mangateparu, when she was struck by a motor-car driven by Albert Thomas Jones. Constable's Evidence Constable McMullan said that both occupants of the car were charged with negligent driving, as Albert Thomas Jones had never been the holder of a driver's licence. Just before the accident he had taken over the wheel from his brother, who was the holder of a driver's licence, and who had driven the car into Morrinsville. Albert Thomas Jones was the younger of the defendants and was practising driving.

Mr. . McGregor submitted that only one occupant of the car could bo charged, as there could be only one driver of a car. The magistrate ruled that there could be two.

Both defendants pleaded not guilty and were committed •to tlie Supreme Court at Hamilton for trial.