CHILD KNOCKED DOWN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 759, 4 September 1929, Page 11

CHILD KNOCKED DOWN

EVIDENCE AGAINST MOTORIST £3OO CLAIM PENDING Evidence for the prosecution only was taken on a charge of dangerous driving against Nathan Wolfe at the Police Court this morning. Mr. Terry, for defendant, then asked for a week’s adjournment, mentioning that a claim for £3OO was pending. The charge followed an accident on May 10, when a two-year-old boy was knocked down by a motor-car, receiving a fractured thigh and other injuries. As some of the police witnesses had come from Wellington, it was decided to hear evidence for the prosecution this morning, Mr. Terry remarking that he had arranged a week’s adjournment in the civil case with Mr. King, who was appearing for plaintiff. John Henry Smith, father of the injured boy, described the accident. He had been standing on the verandah of his home about 8.45 in the morning and his son, two years of age, had run across the street to his aunt’s. Witness bad seen no sign of any traffic until defendant’s car, which was travelling at between 30 and 40 miles an hour, had struck the child. The car was coming along Norfolk Street from Richmond Road and was on its wrong side. Witness shouted, and the brakes were applied, the car skidding across the road and running over a dog before it stopped. “Had the driver been keeping a good lookout he wouldn’t have hit the child,” added witness. Faith Carter, who had been shaking mats on her verandah as she saw the child knocked down, estimated the speed of the car at between 35 and 40 miles an hour. It was quite usual for the child to cross the road to witness in the early morning. “Had the driver sounded his horn the child would have run straight to me. as lie was terrified of cars,” said witness. The adjournment was then taken.