PLUNGE DOWN BANK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23033, 10 May 1938, Page 16

PLUNGE DOWN BANK

TRUCK PASSENGER KILLED CHARGE AGAINST DRIVER [BY TELEGRAI>H—PRESS ASSOCIATION*] WELLINGTON, Monday A fatal motor accident at Tauherenikau on the afternoon of Saturday, February 12, was the basis of a charge in the Supreme Court to-day against William Robert Thompson, aged 48, cordial factory employee. Thompson, who stood his trial before Mr. Justice Reed and a jury, pleaded not guilty to a charge of negligently driving a motortruck, thereby causing the death of Thomas Cudlip. Tho Crown prosecutor, Mr. W. H. Cunningham, outlining tho case for the Crown, said that at about 4.20 p.m. on Saturday, February 12, the police were called to tho southern approach to a bridge over the Tauherenikau River on the main highway about a mile or two out of Featherston. There they found a truck belonging to a Featherston cordial factory, where the accused worked, down a bank on the south side of tho river. It was obvious that the truck had run into one of the approaches to the bridge. At tho scene were accused, another man and deceased, Cudlip, who had received fatal head injuries. Tho evidence for the Crown would be that accused had admitted being the driver and that lie had had a drink, although a doctor would say that he was not unfit to drive. Accused's explanation, Mr. Cunningham continued, was that a green sedan car had come off' the bridge at a fairly fast pace and on its wrong side as he approached it. That caused him to swerve suddenly into tho guard rail of the bridge and go down the bank. Tho other man in the cab besidos accused and Cudlip would say ho did not see any motor vehicle coming off the bridge. Two other witnesses in tho vicinity at the time saw no such car as was described by accused, and exhaustive inquiries and publicity had not revealed such a car. There was no doubt that between lunch time and 4 p.m; accused had spent a considerable time in a hotel, and ho admitted to one person having had four shandies and to another having had five beers. Tho Crown's caso was concluded and the case for the defence had opened when the caso was adjourned until tomorrow.