DRIVER NOT GUILTY
Acquitted on Charge of Negligence. FATAL ACCIDENT SEQUEL. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, August 11. A verdict of not guilty was returned by the jury in the Supreme Court at the conclusion of the second trial of Cyrus Lamson Smith, aged fiftyseven, a manager, who was charged with having negligently driven a motorcas so as to cause the death of Harry Levitt Parker on June 8. The case arose out of a fatal accident which occurred about midnight on June 8 in the New North Road at the corner of Porter’s Avenue. Deceased was a passenger in the front seat of the car driven by accused. In summing up, Mr Justice Herdman said it was the contention of the Crown that accused had been under the influence of liquor and that it was impossible for him to have exercised proper control of a motor-car. It was absurd to say that because a man had one Irink or more than one drink his judgment had become clouded or because his breath smelt of alcohol to say that he was incapable of controlling a motor-car, but if it had been proved that a man had so indulged that he had reached a point when he was incapable of controlling a car, he was guilty of neglect.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19310812.2.177
Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 190, 12 August 1931, Page 14
Word Count
216DRIVER NOT GUILTY Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 190, 12 August 1931, Page 14
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