PEDESTRIAN’S DEATH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 254, 27 October 1938, Page 7

PEDESTRIAN’S DEATH

KNOCKED DOWN BY CAR MEDICAL STUDENT ACQUITTED [ Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 26. Hilgrove John Gosset, medical student of Sumner, was acquitted by a jury in the Supreme Court to-day on a charge of negligent driving causing death. The trial occupied little more than an hour and the jury was in retirement for about 15 minutes. The trial arose from the death oi an elderly pedestrian, Mrs. Selina Elizabeth Mason, who died from injuries received when accused’s cai knocked her down at the intersection of Peterborough and Victoria Streets late one night. Mr. C. S. Thomas represented Gosset. There were no sinister or nasty aspects of the case, said Mr. A. W Brown, who prosecuted. It was not disputed that the car was on its correct side, there was no suggestion that it was going at any great speed, the headlights were burning ana the cai was in good order, nor was there any suggestion of any liquor on the part oi anyone concerned in the accident. The young man concerned was decent and reputable. The only question for the jury to decide was whether at the moment of the accident or for a few moments preceding it the accused had been negligent in not keeping a proper lookout. The crown called several witnesses, Mr. Thomas claimed in his address that the accident had been one of those unfortunate happenings for which neither the pedestrian nor the motorist was to blame. Conditions at that corner on that night had beer, such, he claimed, as to excuse the motorist not seeing the woman, who had been dressed in dark clothing.