NEGLIGENT DRIVING.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18353, 26 August 1929, Page 5

NEGLIGENT DRIVING.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO MERCY. By Telegraph—Press Assoeintiom. NEW PLYMOUTH, August 22. After a two-hours’ retirement, the jury to-day found a Maori named Rami Watson and his employer, Louis Albert Sarten, a farmer, guilty of negligent driving so as to cause the death of John Polletti. The accused were remanded in custody for sentence to-morrow. On alternative charges of manslaughter, the accused were found not guilty. The charges arose out of an incident on the evening of June 11, when Polletti, a well-known farmer, of Bell Block, was knocked down by a lorry driven by Watson, and killed. The lorry had no lights, and both accused had known for a fortnight that the battery was out of order. Watson was driving the lorry eighteen minutes after the time when it was supposed to be lighted, and Carten was driving his car behind the lorry in an endeavour to light the way. When the driver of the lorry saw a car approaching he pulled well off on the correct side. It was then that he became aware that he had struck something. He stopped, and found Polletti in a dying condition. The jury added a rider to their verdict, very strongly recommending Watson to mercy, and recommending Sarten to mercy.