ALLEGED FURIOUS DRIVING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 7

ALLEGED FURIOUS DRIVING.

TAXI DRIVER IN COURT. CHRISTCHURCH, January 18. ' On the night of January 9 'ivy Louisa) Boon, a' married woman, aged 01 years, died in the Public Hospital as a result of injuries received in a motor collision at the corner of Page’s road and Rudd’s road, known generally as Elliss’s corner. James Luderman Matthews, a taxi driver, aged 55 years, appeared at the Magistrate's Court to-day on remand charged with reck•les? driving, thereby causing Mrs Boon’s death. Charles Williin Boon, deceased's husband, said lie was sitting in front with two men driving his milk delivery van, and his wife was seated on a box behind him. The party was returning from New Brighton about 8.30 after spending the evening at the beach. He remembered- nothing after approaching the intersection till hei recovered consciousness in the hospital. No member of the party that night had taken intoxicating liquor. Medical evidence was given to the effect that Mrs Boon’s death was caused by coma, due to laceration of the brain following a fracture of the'skull. Samuel Henry Sullivan, a schoolmaster and a brother of Mrs Boon, said he heard a scream and then saw a flash of light followed by a crash like a gunshot. Witness and two children were hurled out of the back of the van. When Mrs Boon was lifted up she was quite unconscious and bleeding from The mouth. A car with the right front wheel off wns standing about 15 yards away Leonard Gordon Ditfort, a dairyman, wh< was driving another truck following Boon’s, said that when the approaching car camo to the corner it seemed to shoot across th® road. It was travelling at between 40 anif 50 miles an hour. Witness tokl_ accuse® he had driven furiously, and judging front his appearance he would say accused ha<i had a drink or two. Mr Thomas (for Matthews): It was z. pretty hard smash? —Yes. Did accused get knocked about, at all?—' No. He walked from the car. Other witnesses estimated the speed Matthews’s car as over 40 miles an hour. Constable J. Myers said that although Matthews had had liquor he was not in a state to warrant arrest when witncsJ saw him after the accident. There was « notice board on the road limiting tlK* speed of cars to 12 miles an hour. Accused pleaded not guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court, for trial. Bail was allowed in the sum of £2OO with one surety of £2OO. An inquest was held in conjunction with the case and the coroner (Mr H. P. f awry) returned a verdict in accordance with tho medical evidence.