CLAIM FOR £6060

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24824, 22 February 1944, Page 7

CLAIM FOR £6060

CHILD'S LOSS OF FOOT ACCIDENT AT BRIDGE The hearing of an action in which £6062 damages was claimed for the loss of a little boy's foot in a motor accident was continued before Mr. Justice Fair and a jury yesterday. Plaintiff was Hohort Cameron Twentyman (Mr. Goldstine and Mr. Fortune), who on behalf of his son, Stuart, aged five at the time of the accident, claimed these damages from Norman Owen, engineer (Mr. North and Mr. Wallace). Defendant was the driver of a motor-car and trailer, which struck the boy at the overhead bridge near Helensville on December .'SO, 194 0. The boy was with a sister at the time.

Cross-examined by Mr. Goldstine, defendant said that approaching the bridge he had n pretty good vision for 60yds. or 80yds. He did not see the children, because they were not then on the bridge. He could not tell where they were, but they were somewhere in the vicinity. He denied that he as came on to the bridge his attention was distracted elsewhere, and he was looking to the right. While passing over the bridge, he was not keeping as close a.s practicable to his left-hand side, witness said. If lie had been, both the children would have been killed. He could not say whether he sounded his horn or not. There was no reason to sound the horn, as there was no oiif in sight. He did not reduce speed as he came on the bridge. It was untrue that he was not keeping a proper lookout.

Defendant's wife, Edith Mary Owen, said she was in the front seat with her husband at the time of the accident. There was nothing on the road in

sight as they came on the bridge, but just as the car got clear of the bridge she saw a child on the left out of the corner of her eye and called out. Her husband quickly swerved to the right and stopped. An eye-witness, of the accident, John A. A. Keane, manager of Hinemoa House, Helensville, said he was driving a car about 10yds. behind defendant's trailer. He saw a boy and girl flash out from behind the parapet of the bridge. They were travelling very fast, the little girl leading. She swerved to her left, and, he thought, fended herself off the car, but the small boy was not quite so quick. Witness said he saw the trailer overhaul the boy and he went down. He was struck by the left-hand front corner of the trailer, not by the car. After counsel's addresses had been heard, the case was adjourned until this morning, when His Honor will sum up.