ACQUITTAL OF DR. NORTH

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1935, Page 9

ACQUITTAL OF DR. NORTH

NEGLIGENT DRIVING CASE JURY RETIRES FOR 45 MINUTES. DEATH OF OLD MAN IN ACCIDENT. FATALITY ON WAY TO CHURCH. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The Rev. Dr. J. J. North was acquitted in the Supreme Court to-day on a charge of negligent driving causing death, the jury’s retirement lasting three-quarters of an hour. Mr. Justice Reed was on ths bench. Dr. North was driving to church on* Sunday morning, February 24, when his car struck Frederick Cossey, aged 88, who was crossing the road on the way to church. Cossey died in hospital shortly afterwards. ~ . The . Crown Prosecutor said it was not a case of a child running out in the face of traffic, but of an old man who must proceed slowly walking across the street after halting on the footpath to allow traffic to go by. The evidence would show that as he started to cross the road a car was approaching and simultancously Dr. North’s car overtook it. It was clear that Dr. North tried to pass the car in front when approaching an intersection. . ..... The old man passed in front of one car, but when in the middle of the road was struck by Dr. North’s car. The only inference, he contended, *was that Dr. North was not looking ahead of him and his mind was occupied with something else. ■"•. . , The prosecutor said that an hour afterwards Dr. North called on the police and said he Was the driver of the car and that he was oh his way to hospital to see the injured man. He also handed a constable a statement which he had time to prepare carefully. In this he said he thought it wise to pass the other car, but immediately he did so he ran down thfe old man, whom he did not see till he was hit. The prosecutor said the Crown’s suggestion was that ho proper look-out was kept. • ' ' ? Mr. A. H. Johnstone, K.C., for Dr. North, said all the evidence showed the car was being driven at a perfectly moderate sP ee d. No keeping of a look-out was of the slightest avail where an ob-. ject suddenly appeared in one’s path. His Honour said the person in. charge of a car was under a legal duty to take' reasonable precautions to avoid danger.' The Crown must satisfy the jury that Dr. North had failed to take such precautions and that his failure resulted in Cossey’s death. The whole question was ought Dr. North to have seen the old man? ’