Girl Claiming £25,000 For Injuries In Accident

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30469, 17 June 1964, Page 7

Girl Claiming £25,000 For Injuries In Accident

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, June 15. i General damages of £25,000 . are being claimed in an ac- . tion before Mr Justice Perry i by an 18-year-old girl labora- , tory technician for injuries ’ in a car accident in April, 1962. ' The plaintiff, Helen Mar- ' garet Calvert, said her senior ’ counsel (Mr R. K. Davison) ■ suffered serious injuries ■ which would affect her 1 throughout her whole life. The defendant is Allan James Osborne, a farmer, of Kaukapakapa. Roy White, a workman, the driver of the vehicle in which Miss Calvert was a passenger, is cited as the third party. Miss Calvert claims Osborne pulled to the centre of the road as if. he intended to , turn right and as White’s car ’ was passing him, he swung ’ left again. White evaded 1 Osborne’s car, but a trailer ■ White was towing struck the vehicle and caused it to overturn. ! Miss Calvert said she was 1 now working as a laboratory ’ technician at the National : Women’s Hospital. The type ; of work was just what she i wanted, but the hours were too long and at the end of ; each week she was very tired.

She said she had tried other I jobs, both as a laboratory technician and at an en- ' gineering drafting office, but ' had found both jobs unsatis- ■ factory. i Miss Calvert said she , would be able to continue in her present type of work if ■ the hours were shorter. Her injuries had affected 1 her social life “rather drasi tically.” • She lived on her own in a self-contained flat, and had i learned to manage reasonably ‘ well. She had a car with .an automatic transmission, s and had adaptations made to : enable her to drive it. i Miss Calvert said in evidence that after the accident ■ she was in hospital for about : six months. i “At the time of my admis- ’ sion to hospital I was para- ! lysed from the waist down,” ! she said. She had a frac- ' ture dislocation of the lum- ■ bar spine, nerve root damage to both legs, a partial compression fracture of one ; vertebra, bruising around ' the shoulders, and other injuries. Her left leg was now almost : completely normal. She had i to wear a caliper and brace ' for her right leg, and with a ■ stick could walk about half a mile.