"DAZZLED BY LIGHTS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1038, 31 July 1930, Page 8

"DAZZLED BY LIGHTS”

JURY DISAGREES IN BUS-DRIVER’S TRIAL NEW HEARING ORDERED The suggestion that the strong head lights of a following motor-car. playing on to the rear-view reflector and windscreen of the bus, had dazzled the driver, causing him to lose his bearings, was advanced by Mr. R. A. Singer in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon, for the defence of Noel Herbert Wilkinson. Wilkinson, who was the driver of the bus involved in the Hikurangi level-crossing disaster on the evening of April 5, when six of the bus passengers were killed and four others seriously injured, stood his trial on a charge of negligent, driving, causing death and injury. After deliberating over four hours, the jury disagreed and a new trial was ordered for Mon day next. Mr. Justice Herdman was on the Bench. The Crown Prosecutor. Mr. V. R. Meredith, conducted the prosecution. For the defence, Mr. Singer appealed to the jury not to take Into consideration the appalling nature of the disaster, which was and always would be felt as keenly and persistently by accused as by anyone else. He Invited the jury to consider whether the Crown evidence satisfied it that the bus driver had been guilty of criminal negligence, resulting in the sad deaths and injuries to the passengers. He was convinced that the evidence for the defence would satisfy the jury that the disaster was an accident purely and simply. “VISIBILITY VERY BAD" A bus driver. William A. Parkin, who stated that he drove over the railway crossing a-quarter of a mile ahead of accused’s bus, asserted that the visibility was very bad and the headlight on the railway engine was poor. In the witness-box Wilkinson said that in his four years’ driving experience, he had not had an accident previously. During the past 12 months he had been driving over the Hikurangi-Whangarei road more than twice daily, and was well acquainted with it. The crossing was about one and a-half miles from Hikurangi. and after the passengers boarded the bus he had not spoken to anyone. He maintained a speed of 16 miles an hour, stopping several times on the road to pick up passengers. The darkness of the night and bad visibility, because of the misty rain, prompted him to tilt up the windscreen. He was passed by another vehicle about a mile from Hikurangi. and then another car came up behind him. The headlights of this vehicle, shining through the back glar s of the bus on to his rear-view reflector and the windscreen, dazzled him, and he could not pick up the landmarks, which would have warned him of his closeness to the line. He did not hear the engine whistle, or see the train. A farmer, Murdoch Mcßeth, who was watching the scene of the accident from his farm, stated that a car was immediately behind the bus approaching the crossing. The jury was out four and threequarter hours and returned to announce it could not agree. Bail was allowed in the sum of £IOO until the new trial on Monday.