TWO KILLED IN COLLISION

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1930, Page 13

TWO KILLED IN COLLISION

; ALLEGED NEGLIGENT DRIVING. NGAHAURANGA GCRGE SMASH. . By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, ast Night. The deaths of Norman Webb Cook , and his wife, Violet Amelia Cook, as_ the 'result of a motor accident, on the Nga.- ; hauranga Gorge Road on Sunday after- : noon, April . 13, was recalled in the j Supreme Court to-day,.. when '/Alfred 1 Edward Storey stood trial on a charge of having negligently . driven, a , .ijiotorj car and thereby- caused the dca-t.hs of. Mr. and 'Mrs'. Cook. .' " \ ' Dr.. W. F. Shirer said he arrived at the scene of the accident shortly after it occurred. Mrs. Cook wa,s dead and Cook was in a serious conji.tion.. Cook died within a short time uf his admission to the hospital. . Alfred M. Fletcher, licensed surveyor employed by the Public Works Department, produced a plan of the scene of the accident and gave a description of the road and the lull face. The width of the bitumen was between 20 feet and 21feet at the corners. There was a white line on the bitumen. If the accused had been on, his correct side of the road just prior to the accident his range of vision would have been 110 feet by actual road distance.- The farther a' motorist was on his wrong side of the road the less would be his range of vision. ‘ • : ’ • ■ The. Chief Justice and the jury inspected the scene of :fhe accident. Arthur Coffin - said his ear was fourth ■ in a line of cars moving at about 15 miles an hour. Accused’s car was the fifth and as witness approached the bend accused’s car moved up abreast, going at about 20 miles an hour- to the right of the white centre line. Then witness saw Cook’s car coming to the bend well into the bank on its correct side of the road. He heard the impact. To Mr. Cornish ■ witness said he was surprised to see the car down the bank and thought it an extraordinary consequence of the collision. Evidence on similar lines was given by Coffin’s wife and another driver going the same way. Arthur F. Bailey said Cook was a motorist of three years’ experience \nd was normal when be saw him before the accident. The hearing was adjourned.