CHARGE AGAINST MOTORIST

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22506, 14 September 1938, Page 8

CHARGE AGAINST MOTORIST

FARMER COMMITTED FOR TRIAL

ALLEGED FAILURE TO STOP AFTER ACCIDENT [THE PRESS Special Service.] TEMUKA, September 13. Lachlan J. Grant, a farmer, of Clandeboye, who pleaded not guilty, was committed to the Supreme Court for trial when he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court at Temuka to-day, charged with that on the evening of June 21 last, when driving his motorcar, he knocked down Kate Maxwell Johnson, a married woman, in Factory road, Temuka, and failed to stop or give any practical assistance. Bail was fixed at £2OO and one surety of £2OO or two sureties of £IOO each. Mr H. Morgan, S.M., was on the Bench and Sergeant M. E. Hill appeared for the police. Grant, whose defence was reserved, was represented by Mr L. M. Inglis, of Timaru. Arthur Robert Botting, a farmer, of Factory' road, said that he had found Mrs Johnson lying on the shingle a yard from the grass at the side of Fac-‘ tory road, about 5.30 p.m. on June 21. He was “driving his car and was about two chains away when he saw the woman. She was unconscious. No one else was there. Witness found that a leg was broken. The visibility that night was such that an object on the road could be seen easily. Vivian Johnson, son of the injured woman, said that he had arrived at the scene while his mother was still lyi g there. He produced -I. hat and a handbag. The handbag had been found some 200 yards north of where the woman was lying. Lionel Stratford, a schoolboy, aged 12, of Factory road, said that on the morning after the accident he h-.d found a handbag, money, stockings, and parcels eight or 10 chains north of where Mrs Johnson had been lying. They were identified as Mrs Johnson’s. Constable J. B. Kearton, a police photographer, of Christchurch, produced photographs of a partially reconstructed headlamp glass. Evidence of Cyclist

David John Boyd, a shop assistant, of Factory road, said he was cycling north on Factory road on the night of June 21. Grant’s car passed him going north, and he saw only one light. The car was going at a medium speed, Bernard Hughes, a company secretary, m public practice at Temuka, said that he left his office in King street shortly after 5 p.m. on the day in question. He went along King street in a northerly direction and met Grant coming out of the Temuka Hotel. Grant offered him a lift home, which he accepted. Grant left witness at about 5.30 p.m. and witness did not see which way he went. Stanley John Clinch and James Robert Hatton gave evidence that they saw Grant between 5 p.m. and 5.15. Leslie Robert Goodson, a farm hand, of Clandeboye, said that he helped to get Grant’s car away from a telegraph pole, which it had broken some eight miles from the accident. The road at that point was straight and flat. There was a faint smell of liquor, but he saw no broken glass. Grant gave no explanation of how his car got there. There was no one with Grant and he thought it was about 5.55 p.m. John C. Hill, a linesman employed by the Post and Telegraph Department at Timaru. said that he picked up four nieces of glass by the pole and took them to the police station. Broken Glass on Road Constable R. J. Shannon said that on the night of June 21 he accompanied Sergeant M. E. Hill to Factory road, where he found Mrs Johnson on the roadside. Her hat was about 19 paces from where she was lying and there were several broken pieces of glass. Next morning he went to the scene accompanied by Traffic-Inspector R. Ashwell. He recognised a large piece of glass coloured red, exhibited in Court, as that handed to him. There were several pieces of glass found and handed to him. In consequence of information received witness examined Grant’s car. The left head-lamp was twisted and there was no glass in it. The left mudguard was damaged and a spring broken. Grant said that at 5 p.m. he had collided with a pole near Clandeboye. Witness went to the pole and found some small pieces of glass. The glass found there was not mixed with that from Factory road, which was stained red for identification.

Sergeant M. E. Hill said that at 5.28 p.m. on the night in question he received a telephone message and went to the scene of the accident. He found no witness there. He took possession of all bits of glass. The following day Constable Shannon brought some glass to the station, among which was a fairly large piece. This piece, together with glass found on the previous day, was stained red. The constable produced more large pieces which had been found at the pole on the MilfordClandeboye road. Photographs of the damage to the accused’s car were taken on July 24 and Grant was then informed that he was suspected. He had denied guilt, sayingtthatt t he was not in Factory road on the night in question. He‘had made his last call at Clinch’s and went past Hatton’s garage along the North Town belt and along Woodhead’s road. When on the MilfordClandeboye road his car had veered off the road and struck the pole. He had never had the headlamps repaired Grant had said that he had only some sarsaparilla and lemonade drinks in the morning, and two portergaffs in the afternoon. The whole of the glass found, said the witness, was accounted for in the reconstruction of the headlamp. The glass had been carefully preserved in his custody. Percival H. Powell, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Canterbury University College, said that he had received fragments of glass which consisted of a series of coloured bits of glass and a series of uncoloured bits. The coloured bits had been fitted into the plain pieces in such a manner as to form part of a headlamp. It was quite evident to him that from the nature of the fitting that they all originally came from the same headlamp.