HIGHWAY CRASH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20017, 16 August 1939, Page 6

HIGHWAY CRASH

GIRL CYCLIST’S DEATH EVIDENCE AT TRIAL EFFECTS OF COLLISION CROWN CASE CLOSED The 'Crown case against Mark Nepia. aged 49, a Maori labourer, who was charged in the Supreme Court before Mr. Justice Johnston with negligent driving and causing the death of Iris Annie Berry, and also failing to stop after an accident, was closed just prior to the luncheon adjournment to-day. Several witnesses were heard this morning, these including Robert Metcalfe, the Transport Department’s traffic inspector, who on the night cf June 23 was warned of the accident at Makaraka, and who gave evidence of having -found 'Nepia's car with its back wheels in a ditch, adjacent to the Taruheru .turn-off in Upper Gladstone road. When witness first found’ Nepia’s car ditched, the lights were out. Tested, they proved to be brilliant enough, but one was tilted badly, and it was not usable. In a test made next day, the footbrake proved efficient, and the handbrake also came within the regulations, witness continued. Cross-examination of Inspector Cross-examined by Mr. Purdie, witness said that he had been advised that a girl had been involved in a collision, and he went out to investigate. He associated the car found in the .ditch with the accident, and' Apaapa, the only occupant, was unable to give intelligible replies to questions. It did not enter his head that the driver of the car was at the scene of the accident. He had assumed that the accident had happened on the spot where he found the car, and that the body had' been taken away. Mr. Purdie asked if the witness expected the court to take that as a reasonable assumption. The witness replied that he considered it reasonable.

Counsel: Have you had much to do with investigating accidents? —No. 1 have been lucky. Have you had much experience of dealing with people following accidents? —Not a great deal. Then you are not a fit and proper person to judge the condition of a person under such circumstances? — Well, I do not set up as an expert. Sergeant L. T. Moore deposed to having taken over Nepia and Apaapa from the traffic inspector at the police station. Apaapa, who said that he was the driver of the car, was drunk, and did not appear to realise the serious nature of the accident. Nepia was- quiet and serious, and denied definitely that he had driven the car. Witness told Nepia, in reply to his question, that a young woman had been killed, and Nepia's comment was: “By korry, that's bad!” Witness called Dr. H. Angell to examine the two men, and he decided! that Apaapa was l drunk, and that Nepia was not fit to drive. Next day Nepia .admitted that he had been driving the car. To 5/fr. Whitehead, the witness said that the admission was made freely. Examination of Car Constable Waple, who proceeded with the traffic inspector on his second visit to the neighbourhood of the accident, described the condition of the car in' the ditch, and 1 also the positions of the two girls and their bicycles further up the highway, towards the cemetery bend. The right-hand running-board of the car whs also found at this spot. The tracks of the car showed on the road-side for a distance of about 100yds. Witness detailed measurements taken on the spot, and: reproduced on a plan which he had prepared. In an examination of the car, made next morning, lie found portions of the rear-reflector from Miss Smith’s bicycle between the bonnet and the right-hand mudguard. Marks on the bicycle showed that it had 'been struck from directly behind. Mr. Purdie, cross-examining, asked how far it was from the point where the marks of the collision first appeared on the road to the point at which Miss Berry’s bicycle was found? The witness said, was 90ft. 6in. He added, in reply to another question, that in his examination of the car, he found that the supports of the running board had been forced back at a sharp angle. Medical Evidence Dr. A. Murray Scott detailed the positions and injuries of the two girl cyclists, at the time of his arrival on the scene of the accident. He also gave the court the results of a post-mortem examination carried out next day on the body of Miss Berry, and attributed her death to a fracture of the skull and cerebral haemorrhage. Cross-examined by Mr. Whitehead Dr. Scott stated that he considered Miss: Smith to have suffered from cerebral concussion, and he agreed that this was sometimes accompanied by impairment of memory. It was not an invariable effect of cercbraL concussion that the memory was affected; it was a complication, in fact. It would 1 not be surprising if the memory of tiip victim suffered.

The witness was invited by Mr. Whitehead to discuss the result of a sudden yell from the back seat upon the driver of a ear. He considered that under such circumstances the driver would be likely to turn bis head to discover the source of the noise. It would be an involuntary action, which probably would be beyond the control' of the average man.

Counsel: Would there be a tendency for the whole body to respond? —Yes. There would be a tendency for the body to follow’the head.

A sudden noise from the rear under those circumstances would affect the control of a driver? —Yes. It Is extremely probable. The driver would be liable to rotate the wheel in the direction in which he turned his head? —Yes.

And that would produce a swerve? —That is logical. Counsel questioned the witness as to the effects of reflected light, and witness agreed that before light rays could be reflected back to their source, they must strike a flat surface at right angles to the line of sight. With reflectors such as those used on bicycles, the effect of turning the angle of the fiat surface away would be to decrease the visibility of reflection. This closed the case for the Crown, and His Honour intimated that lie would hear counsel's addresses after the luncheon adjournment. (Proceeding)