NEGLIGENT driving.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19010, 29 July 1933, Page 6

NEGLIGENT driving.

DEATH OF FOUR PERSONB. CAR GOES OVER BANK. THE DRIVER CHARGED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. Frederick Patrick Hooker (23), driver of a motor car which went over a bank at Island Bay in April, killing four members of a cabaret party, was charged to-day in the Supreme Court with negligently driving the car, thereby causing the deaths of James Henry Wood, his wife Marjorie Wood, Olga Barhedes, and Ernest Joseph Dickson. The evidence for the Crown was similar to that at the -preliminary hearing.

In opening the case for the Crown, Mr Macassey said it wbuld be shown, practically on Hooker’s own admission, that lie had no license to drive, he was an inexperienced drive/, and he was not acquainted with the road. It was contended that the fact that the car went over the hank was not due lo defective braking. Skid marks IS feet long, made by the back wheels, were found on the road, showing that the wheels had locked. It was the submission of the Coroner that the accident was due to the incompetence and carelessness of Hooker, and his want of knowledge of the road. Verdict of Not Guilty. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The jury added riders expressing the opinion that the corner should be better lighted and that the regulation governing the road-xvorthiness of cars should be strictly enforced.