AFTER AN ACCIDENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 243, 14 October 1938, Page 10

AFTER AN ACCIDENT

MOTORIST’S FAILURE TO STOP SOUTH CANTERBURY FARMER SENT TO GAOL. I Per Press Association.) TIMARU, Oct. 13. Lachlan John Grant, a Clandeboye farmer and a prominent member, of South Canterbury organisations, was sentenced to-day by Mr. Justice Northcroft to six months’ hard labour on a charge of failing to stop and give all practicable assistance after an accident. The charge arose out of the finding of Mrs. Kate Maxwell Johnson on the roadside on June 21. Eight miles away Grant’s car ran into a telegraph pole, and it was the inference of the prosecution that the car had been deliberately run into the pole to explain the damage done to the car, when it struck the woman who had a leg fractured. Glass found in the vicinity of the woman, and some found near the pole, was fitted together in a successful effort to reconstruct portion of a lamp glass of accused’s car. His Honour commented on the clear way the ease was presented. Counsel suggested that a monetary penalty should be imposed, but Mr. Justice Northcroft refused, on the grounds that it would be making a discrimination between a man of means and persons in poorer circumstances.