FATAL MOTOR SMASH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19024, 26 May 1936, Page 15

FATAL MOTOR SMASH

THE MATAWAI CASE VERDICT OF NOT 0 I’ll .TV ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE The Inal of Jacob Xgatai. (Ipotiki. in the Supremo Court to-day be tore Mr. Justice Reed concluded with the jury s retirement at 3.25 p.m. Xgatai was charged willi negligently chiving a motor car at Matawai on November 30. ctttisimr the death ot Martin Moui anil injury to Oki Moni. Mr. F. W. Nolan. Crown Prosecutor, conducted the prosecution, and Mr. East, Opotiki, appeared for the accused. . . The jury returned at 3.42 p.m. with ■i verdict of not guilty. Constable MeClinehv, Matawai, sanl that the scene of the accident was about three miles on the Opotiki side of Matawai. lie examined the road surface, and followed the marks for about 130yds. from the point where the car took a bend on the wrong side of the road. The tracks continued on the grass for about a chain, crossed the road at right angles on to the grass and up the side, and from there the tracks were visible for a chain before the car hit the log. The marks about JOyds. before they reached the stump went within Gin. of the hank. The stump was knocked out jf the ground. In a statement, the accused said that the speed of the car was increased to about 40 miles an hour .just before the accident. Realising the sped was fust, lie took his foot off the accelerator, but it jammed, and the brakes refused to function. Afterwards, the constable continued, he searched the riverbed, and found two full bottles and other empty ones, including some which were broken. A Government analyst’s report was secured from the contents of a sample, which contained 10.8 per cent of proof spirit; beer in New Zealand usually contained from 7 to 11 per cent ot proof spirit. To Mr. East, witness said that the accused did not show any signs of liquor. The accused had denied takingliquor. Detective G. A. McWhirter, Gisborne, said that on January 17 lie saw

the accused at Opotiki. The accused admitted then that there was some beer in the car, and made a statement ■ o this effect, adding that he drank -ome of it on the journey. The accused had said that there was no beer in the car because it might get him into trouble, but held to the opinion that the accident was caused by the accelerator jamming. This closed the case for the Crown.

Mr. East said that the defence was that the amount of beer consumed did not have nnv bearing on the accident, that the accelerator jamming caused excessive speed, and that the reason for the car hitting the stump was because the passenger. Ran Tawhara Taumaipaoa grabbed the steering wheel.

The accused, in evidence, said that ho made the -beer at his home four! days before the accident and bottled it three days later, or the day before tliej accident. lie had one drink from the four bottles opened during the trip. He travelled at about 40 miles an hour for about three chains before lie got to the bend just prior to the. accident. Rounding the bend, lie found | the accelerator jammed, and the car. swayed from side to side, and had not Ran grabbed the steering wheel the car would have gone into the river. The cur was not pulling up. He had had a car of his own for seven years, but hail nor owned one for three years. He had been driving cars frequency since then. No further evidence was called. Mr. East, addressing the jury, said that the beer, being made only four days before and bottled only the night before the accident, was not very potent The analyst’s report was not made- until an examination on February 6. and the alcoholic content of the beer would have increased considerably in that. time. The day after it- had been bottled, the beer would have been very, mild. The suddenness with which the brakes jammed would have caused the accused to become confused, anil the Maori, being a slower thinking man than the average pakelia. would have been unprepared. The accident was accidental, and no blame could be attachable' to the driver. (Proceeding.)