NEGLIGENT DRIVING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18466, 3 August 1934, Page 9

NEGLIGENT DRIVING

LORRY DRIVER GUILTY JUDGE CRITICISES EVIDENCE i ' (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. “I will consider this seriously to see what effect I can give to your fecoipmepdatiop, but my difficulty may die:'thktvtffeW; is;something in the ease (that s'hyors' pi' the;:-subornation of witnesses, ”■ remarked the Chief Jus'tice, Bir 'Mr'Myers, nr the Supreme ‘Court to-day, when the jury returned a verdict.of guilty against Cyril John Steer, lorry driver, on a charge of negligently driving so as to cause bodily harm. The jury added a strong recommendation to mercy, “on account of the prisoner's unblemished record as a motor driver,” aud His Honor said he would deliver sentence on Monday.

'The allegations made were that accused on January.’FV at about 6 p.m. overtook ini liis lofty a, car, and brushin'g against it, caused it to go over •the bank into the Porirua Stream. The driver of the car, George, Iveruiodc, was injured, and was taken to hospital, where, several weeks later, he died of pneumonia. Accused, in evidence, said he had no recollection of seeing the car. He had felt uo bunip, and none of the passengers in his lorry had referred to anything like that. It was absurd to suggest, that some beer he had iuul had affected him.

On the jury returning its verdict, His Honor observed: “I am satisfied that the,accused kneiy, he had hit the car, and .1 ani satisfied ‘also that he accelerated afterwards. „ “His Honor added, that it seemed' that certain of the witnesses hud ‘‘in tlfeir go.od nature” acceded to a re3ucst by Steer concerning the oviducts they would-give.”