"NOT GUILTY”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 189, 12 August 1931, Page 7

"NOT GUILTY”

NEGLIGENT DRIVING CHARGE SEQUEL TO FATAL ACCIDENT. [ Per Press Asst elation. ] AUCKLAND, Aug. 11. A verdict of not guilty was returned by the jury in tho Supreme Court at tho conclusion of the second trial of Cyrus Lamson Smith, aged 57, manager, who was charged with having negligently driven a motor car so as to cause the death of Harry Levitt Parker on June 8. The case arose out of a fatal accident which occurred at about midnight on Juno 8 in tho new North Road at the corner of Porter’s Avenue. Deceased was a passenger in tho front seat of the car driven by accused. In summing up, Mr Justice Herdman said that it was tho contention of tho Crown that accused had been under the influence of liquor and that it was impossible for him to have exercised proper control of the motor-car. It was absurd to say that because a man had had one drink or more than one drink his judgment had become clouded, or that because his breath smelt of alcohol, to say that he was incapable of (Controlling a motor-car, but if it had been proved that the man had so indulged that he had reached the point when he was incapable of controlling a car, he was guilty of neglect.