CASE AGAINST DRIVER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27541, 8 November 1950, Page 4

CASE AGAINST DRIVER

Fatality At North Taieri CONCLUSION TODAY This morning, in the Supreme Court, Mr Justice Hutchison will sum up and the jury will then retire to consider whether or not Maurice Brennan Edward Healey, aged 28, was guilty of recklessly driving a motor vehicle, thereby causing injury, or, alternatively, negligent driving causing injury, at North Taieri on August 11. Two men were killed when a Ministry of Works truck which Healey was driving collided with an air force truck on a culvert between the Black bridge, at the foot of Three Mile Hill. Healey has pleaded not guilty to both charges. Yesterday was the second day of the hearing.. After the evidence had been completed in the afternoon, the jury was taken to North Taieri to see the scene of the accident. Continuing the Crown’s case yesterday morning, Charles Keith Ellis, a horticulturist in the Department of Agriculture, said that when he turned into Duke’s road from Puddle alley he was doing a speed of betwen 40 and 45 miles an hour and was unable to catch the Ministry of Works truck in front. Cross-examined, witness said he could not say whether the Works truck decreased speed after it disappeared from sight around the bend. Corporal Gavin Lindsay Dixon, stationed at the RNZAF Station, Taieri, who was a passenger in the Ministry of Works truck, said that after passing the Black bridge he noticed that the speed of the truck increased. He estimated the speed at 50 miles an hour. Witness had driven with Healey fairly frequently. . Flight Lieutenant Leslie Thomas Roberts, officer in charge of transport at Taieri, said he had investigated a number of accidents. In his opinion the accident took place about 3 feet off the end of the culvert, towards Taieri. From tests with similar vehicles, he had concluded that the Ministry of Works truck braked sharply approaching the culvert and swerved to the right. Evidence for the Defence The accused, in evidence, said that as he approached the Black bridge he changed gear at a reduced speed of about 25 miles an hour. After crossing ' the bridge he rounded the bend into the straight leading to the culvert at about 30 miles an hour. He saw the air force truck completing the turn at the foot of the Three Mile Hill. He estimated that the two vehicles would pass between two intervening culverts. As the air force truck crossed the first culvert on the town side, it was straddling the white centre line and witness, who was now approaching the culvert on the Taieri side, decided that he could not stop in front of the culvert because a head-on collision might occur. He decided to cross the culvert and draw into the grass on the other side. On the Taieri side there was a creek which would have meant disaster for his passengers and himself. “ I accelerated to get over the culvert first,” witness said. “ There was a bang, and I realised we had hit.” Cross-examined by the Crown, witness said that when he accelerated before the accident, he was doing about 45 miles an hour. Keith Willis, assistant engineer to the Ministry of Works, Dunedin, produced pians of the scene of the accident. As a result of his observations on indentations and measurements he had taken, he formed the theory that the accident could have taken place about 6 feet from the Dunedin end of the bridge and actually on the bridge. Mrs Elizabeth Heath Hughes, who was a passenger in a car going towards Taieri, said an air force truck passed them " like a flash.” Thomas Grundy, a carpenter employed at Taieri, said he was travelling into town in a petrol tanker. On the Three Mile Hill the tanker passed an air force truck going at about 45 miles an hour. Stanley Daniel Greene, driver of the tanker, said he had to pull his vehicle to the left to avoid being struck. William Mollison, a lorry driver, said that on the afternoon of the accident the sun was glaring as he approached the culvert from Dunedin. Addresses by Counsel Addressing the jury on behalf of the accused, Mr W. McAlevey said that at no time was it Healey’s intention to dispute possession of the culvert. He had been forced into a situation in which he had to make an immediate decision. “ You may think that the culvert you have seen is not for two-way traffic,” counsel said, " and that steps should be taken to widen it or have warning notices erected.” For the Crown, Mr W. H. Carson said the jury would have to decide whether Healev was negligent when he approached the culvert, and did his negligence cause the death of two men. Healey had been driving over the road for some time and he should have known about the peculiarities of the culvert.