MAYOR’S COURT.

Evening Star, Issue 2910, 17 June 1872, Page 2

MAYOR’S COURT.

This Day. (Before His Worship the Mayor.) DRUNKENNESS. William M ‘Grath, John Stevens, John Mathews, and Samuel Brown, alias Mortimer, were each fined ss; James Stapleton, alias Dwyer, and Patrick M'Kendry, were

each fined 10s. John Brown was fined 20s, with the alternative of 48 hours’ imprisonment. OBSCENE LANGUAGE. Farquhar M'Crea was charged with this offence. The case was dismissed. THE COACH ACCIDENT AT GREEN ISLAND. James Miller, for whom Mr Harris appeared, was charged with furious and neglegent driving. The first witness called was Marion M'Pherson, a girl about 16 years of age, who stated that she was a passenger as far as Green Island by Steadman’s coach, of of which the defendant was driver, on the afternoon of the 11th instant. At the request of the driver, she took a box seat; but finding he was driving very fast, she determined to get inside. She smelt drink very strongly on the driver. (This line of examination was objected to by Mr Harris, and not pressed.) He drove quickly up Look-out Point hill, and, getting frightened, she complained of the cold, and went inside. He also drove very fast down the hill; and on starting again from Eagerty’s hotel, he continued the same pace. On reaching the second bridge at the foot of the hill, past Eagerty’s, the coach came into collision with a dray; and witness, following the example of a man who was inside the coach, got on to the step to jump out, but she did not remember having jumped.

She was up and conveyed to her had since been attended by two sustained injuries to her head and arml.' Just after the collision ahe.looked oUtr the window and saw the driver lying on the road, and the horses without control. Other passengers complained of the defendant’s driving ; and one man inside the coach remarked that the defendant must have been either mad or drunk to have driven so quickly. In cross-exami-nation witness said she believed the 'distance from town to Eagerty’s was done that afternoon in thirty-five minutes. It was not dark when the collision took place, good horses and were well driven—in fact and the coach was going as fast when it happened as at any other time during the journey. When she jumped out the horses were running into the swamp ; a wheel of the coach had been broken ; and it was bumping greatly. She was frightened of her life. — John Matheson, a carter, recollected the evening of the 11th instant. At about half-past five o’clock, as nearly as he could remember, he was bringing a load of coals from one of the pits to Brown’s fellmongery, and defendant ran into him. It was not quite dark when it happened; but he saw the defendant a little before, and fearing a mishap from the pace he-was. going at, he drew-hi&4rayas. far on his side as he possibly could. His' dray was almost off the metal when the collision occurred, while the coach'was right in tbo middle of the road. . Witness did hot think the coach could have gone faster than it did; it was going faster than Cobb’s coaches generally go ; it was.going more,than ten miles an hour when it passed.—David Buchanan, an at the Meat Works, saw the accident which happened, as nearly as be could recollect, at about half-past five o’clock. He considered the coach was being driven furiously. Matheson’s dray was as far on his side of the road as it could be ; it was within eighteen inches of the embankment; and MatheSons stoid at the horse’s head. When' the coach struck the .dray the former’s wheel came off, and the driver either fell or was thrown off bis seat. He appeared to be under the influence ol drink at the time. The horses were driven full gallop down the hill; and that he called furious driving. The coach wheel never went over the driver’s ankle.—George Young, a passenger by the coach on the day in question, said the horses were driven “ pretty fast,” faster than he had seen horses driven before j but he judged by results. When he saw the manner in which the coach was taken down the hill, just beyond Look-out Point, he remarked that they were he took very little n tice.—Constable Anderson saw the defendant shortly after the accident, when he said he bad “ run into a dray.” In answer to the constable’s query he said he was not hart; and witness judged from his manner at the time that he was partly suffering from the effects of a fall, and-partly from the effects of drink. The evidence for the defence was meagre. The defendant, in the statement he made to the Bench, denied that he was all under the influence of liquor that day; said he invariably walked the horses uphills, and denied that he drove the horses beyond the .ordinary pace. The accident was owing to the coal dray not being on its proper side of the road. Mr Eagerty, landlord of the Rose, Thistle, and .Shamrock hotel was briefly examined. His Worship considered the case proven. The witnesses for the prosecution apparently gave their evidence in a fair and impartial manner; and the balance of evidence suf« ported the view that the defendant drove faster than he ought to have done. A fine of L 5, together with full costs, was imposed.