DEATH OF A MOTORIST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22269, 23 May 1934, Page 11

DEATH OF A MOTORIST

ALLEGED NEGLIGENT DRIVING THE DRIVER ACQUITTED. ( Per United Press association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, May 22.* . Eric James Baxter, a sawmillcr, of Waekanae, was acquitted by a jury today on a charge of negligent driving so as to cause death. The charge arose from a smash at Lepperton in December when a car driven by Baxter crashed through the side of the railway overhead bridge on to the line. Patrick Newton, an employee of Baxter,' received fatal injuries. The jury added a rider thac the bridge was dangerous, a fact which should be brought to the notice of the authorities. The Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) advised Baxter to refrain In future from drinking when driving. It might well be'thought, he added, that a man who, when driving a car, takes in the space of a little more than three, hours nine alcoholic drinks, was not a fit and proper person to be entrusted with a driver’s license. He added that whatever a driver’s conduct the court had no jurisdiction to deal with the license unless there had been a conviction for certain offences under the Motor Vehicles Act.