PEDESTRIAN’S DEATH

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 256, 28 July 1942, Page 2

PEDESTRIAN’S DEATH

Car Driver On Trial A fatal accident on the main road just south of Tawa Flat on the night of May 26 resulted in Douglas Hector MacDonald Bruce, aged 41, garage proprietor, standing his trial in the Supreme Court, Wellington, yesterday, on charges of negligent driving, causing the death of Anthony Sutherland, failing to stop after an accident, and failing to ascertain whether he had injured anyone. To all these charges he pleaded not guilty. Mr. Justice Blair was on the bench, Mr. W. H. Cunningham prosecuted, and Dr. O. C. Mazengarb represented Bruce. Mentioning that it was the third negligent driving charge this session, Mr. Cunningham said the Crown would allege Bruce had driven with insufficient lights, failed to keep as far as was practicable to the left of the road, failed to keep a proper look-out, and driven at excess speed. There would also be some evidence of imperfect brakes. He said the accident happened on a wet, southerly night, and visibility had been poor, but when this was so the care and skill required by a motorist was proportionately increased. Regarding the second and third counts, said Mr. Cunningham, the jury had to be satisfied that accused knew an accident involving a person had happened before they convicted. Sutherland had been travelling by train to Tawa Flat, where he lived, but he mistakenly left the train at Takapu Road. Another passenger, Mrs. Coombes, also did this, so they set out together to walk along the main road to Tawa Flat. Mrs. Coombes would say they were walking along the right of the road, facing oncoming traffic, when she noticed car lights coming from behind. She stepped off the bitumen, and the next thing she heard was a crash, and Sutherland had disappeared from beside her. The car turned on to the grass a short way ahead, then went on. She searched for Sutherland, and found him in a ditch in a bad way. Mr. Cunningham told the jury that in such cases they generally had to reconstruct the incident from marks on the car, and road. When inspected by the. police, the front number plate of accused’s car had been hanging by one bolt, the right front mudguard was scratched and cracked, the windscreen was broken, mainly on the driver's side and there was other damage to the right-hand side of the car. Later, in a braking test at 35 miles per hour, on wet bitumen, the car turned round one and three-quarter times before it stopped. Reading a statement by accused in which he said his car suddenly skidded as he was pacing the point where the accident occurred, and attributing the breaking of the wind screen to tile jerk as the car straight tied up again, Mr. Cunningham said the main question for the juiy to decide would be whether Bruce skidded before or after the accident. The case for the Crown lasted all day yesteiday, and will be continued this morning after the jury have visited the scene of the accident. Witnesses already heard are Albert Morris Leadley, who gave evidence of identification, Bertram Ernest Wright, the doctor who was called to the accident, Leonard Percy Arthur, who drew plans of the locality. Philip Patrick Lynch, who performed the postmortem, Jack Colclough. who photograph ed the locality nnq the car, Vera Mav Coombes, who was walking with Sutherland when he was killed, Walter Hopkirk. who came along soon after the accident, Reuben Phillips, the constable called to the accident, and William Albert Hotchen, whom Mrs. Coombes called to the scene.