NEGLIGENCE ALLEGED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 128, 1 June 1937, Page 17

NEGLIGENCE ALLEGED

MOTORMAN ON TRIAL

MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

(By Telegraph -i'ress Ass-elatlon.)

DUNEDIN, May 31,

The Supreme Court, over which Mr. Justice Kennedy presided, today was engaged in hearing evidence in tne tiase in which -Alfred Chapman, aged 33, tramway motorman, was charged with committing manslaughter, in that he killed John Kenny. The charge, to which the accused pleaded not guilty, arose out of an accident in Signal Hill Road, Opoho, on the morning of April 15, when a tram driven by Chapman left the rails and plunged through a fence, fatally injuring Kenny, who was walking on the footpath.

The hearing of evidence for the Crown occupied the, whole of the day, and the' case tot the defence will be commenced when the Court resumes tomorrow morning.

In his address to the jury the Crown Prosecutor said the charge against the accused was upon the single count of manslaughter. The charge was based solely on negligence and the allegation of the Crown was therefore that by negligence the accused brought about the death of John Kenny. Dr. Dickie, house surgeon at the Dunedin Hospital, described Kenny's injuries when he was admitted to hospital. ' : > Thomas Alfred Biggs, mechanical engineer, employed by the city corporation tramways department, said he was walking down, Signal Hill Road on the morning of April 15 and he saw: the car as it reached Roxburgh Street, a block below the terminus at Opoho. It was travelling much faster than the usual pace at that point and was swaying. It then jumped the rails, ran 30 to 40 yards on the street, then turned to the right, ran over the footpath, and crashed through a fence.Kenny was walking down the footpath. He hesitated, evidently realising there was something wrong with the tram, and just before it hit him hf seemed to step backwards as though to avoid it. The tram came to rest in .a section on its wheels. Visibility was fairly good. When the tram turned oil the rails it was travelling at 30 or 40 miles an hour. ■ ■

Charles Herbert Thomison, medical student, who was a passenger on the back platform of the tram, said it soon gathered speed after leaving the terminus and he realised when it had gone less than 50 yards that there was: something wrong. He could tell that the magnetic brake was not working and about 30 yards above Roxburgh Street he saw the motorman working the hand brake. The tram left the rails shortly below Roxburgh Street and witness was thrown of! just-before it stopped in the section. The-speed of the car became progressively faster as it descended the hill, pitching and swaying in its course.

Corroborative evidence was given oy other passengers on the car.

W. H. Mackenzie, tramways manager, said that an investigation subsequent to the accident revealed nothing wrong witlj the brakes or with the track. ■ ■ : .

This evidence was corroborated by Maurice Ordist Fairhurst, plant overseer, Public Works Department, and William Davis Richards, engineer in the tramways department.

Evidence for the defence-"- -will be heard tomorrow. ■ •• . "