PUZZLE FOR THE COURT

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1930, Page 4

PUZZLE FOR THE COURT

MAN IN PATH OF MOTOR-CAR TURNING CORNER OF -STREET. WITNESSES EVENLY DIVIDED. The poser was offered in the New Plymouth Magistrate’s Court yesterday whether a man stepped 'off the corner of the footpath at the Grosveiior Hotel into the path of a motor-car or off the corner ■ ; opposite (the GrosvciioV Hotel into the path of* a motor-car. It was impossible for his client to have made a mistake, said Mr. R. H. Quilliam, who appeared for defendant. At the same time there was not the slightest doubt about the evidence- for the prosecution. It was just possible that it was a strange coincidence of two men wearing light coloured raincoats and two men driving cream coloured ears. Stranger things had happened. The facts given were that Fred L. 0. Hooker, according, to himself and two other witnesses; stepped off the corner opposite the Grosvenor Hotel at 7.45 p.rr. into the path of a cream coloured motor-car which was cutting the right-hand corner, turning from St. Aubyn Street into Egmont Street. Hooker was wearing a light-coloured raincoat. .......

The driver of a cream-coloured motorcar and. his two front passengers were, on the other-hand,.equally positive that their car had turned from St. Aubyn Street into Egmont Street on its correct side of. the road and that a -man in a light-coloured raincoat had stepped in front of the car from under the verandah of the Grosvenor Hotel.

The ease arose out of-a charge brought by. the police . against John Duggan, farmer or Pungarehu, of- cutting a right-hand corner. The magistrate reserved his decision, saying That he would give his verdict this morning. ■ Fred L. O< Hooker said he had just stepped off the footpath opposite tlie Grosvenor Hotel when defendant drove straight towards him. He took one step and a jump, otherwise lie would have been run down. He saw the car pull in. to Campbell’s garage and he spoke to the driver. Defendant said he was very sorry. Hooker had then taken the car’s number and reported the case to the police.

James P. Q. Carroll saw the incident. The car was a cream-coloured one, he said. It passed about three feet from the corner on the wrong side of the road. His wife, Mary Carroll, corroborated this evidence.

The defendant, John Duggan, farmer of Pungarehu, said he was certain he turned the corner from St. Aubyn Street to Egmont Street slowly and on his correct, side. A man -stepped off the footpath by the Grosvenor Hotel almost in front of the ear. Duggan swerved to his right and the man-jumped back under the verandah. The man was wearing a raincoat but he did not know whether it was Hooker or not. When Hooker spoke to him afterwards in the garage, he had a raincoat on. He thought ; ho. must, ’be .the man who had got in the; -pathsbf.'.ithe car, and naturally he said he was sorry.

A passenger in the front seat of Duggan’s car, Myrtle Haskell, said she saw the man step into the road from the Grosvenor Hotel side. Duggan swerved to the right to miss him. ”■ ’• Another front seat ’ passenger, Annie Duggan, sister of the defendant, corroborated this evidence. He was entitled to definite evidence, said the magistrate, before he could convict. It seemed incredible that it could have been a coincidence. He would like to go through the evidence again.