CYCLIST'S DEATH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20017, 16 August 1939, Page 7

CYCLIST'S DEATH

COLLISION WITH CAR

EVIDENCE OF COMPANION MARK NEPIA CHARGED ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE The evidence of Rena May Smith, companion of the girl who was, killed in a motor collision on June 23 neai ihe Makaraka cemetery, was heard this afternoon toy the jury in the case in which a Maori, Mark Nepia, aged 49, a labourer, was charged in the Supreme Court with having driven his car negligently, causing ithe death of Miss Iris Annie Berry, and with having failed to dtop after an acciThe hearing proceeded before Mr. Justice Johnston, the case toeing conducted by ' Mr. F. W. Nolan, Crown prosecutor, while Mr. A. A. Whitehead, with him Mr. D. C. Purdlie, appeared for the accused. CtofK-exanvined by Mr. Whitehead, the witness Rena May Smith stated that she and Miss Berry had been riding about 18in. apart. She did not think that unduly close, but she had not previously [Considered the possibility that their handle-bars might have locked. She remembered clearly ifchait she was riding well on her correct side of the road, but was not at all sure of the exact distance, Miss Berry had had a handbag with her, tout Witness did not know how it was carried. Witness remembered saying that she was not sure whether the flash of light seen just prior to the accident was from Miss Berry’s bicycle or from the car lamps. She agreed that it might hsve been from either side, or merely an illumination from the rear. It seemed a long time between the moment when she heard the car coming, and when she saw the flash. She did not notice anything in the sound of the car to indicate that it was going faster than the average.

Deceased’s Father’s Evidence

William Leonard Berry, a gardener living at 'Makaraka, and the father of the deceased, Iris Annie Berry, identified one of the bicycles produced as that on which his daughter had left home. Some time after her departure he received information, acting on which he went to the scene of the collision. 'His daughter’s body was lying on the road, with the legs 18in. or 2ft. on the 'bitumen, and the head lying towards the roadside. The bag produced was h'is daughter’s, said the witness, and it was her custom 'to carry it on the handles of her 'bicycle. (Mrs. Jean Margaret Wells, of Hexton, described having seen, from the corner of the Taruheru road, the lights of a car overtake those of two bicycles near the cemetery bend on the main highway. The car lights seemed to come from directly behind the bicycles. Witness heard a crash, such as the car would make <ja a collision, and the bicycle lights disappeared. The car continued to approach the witness, moving erratically, and stopped' about half a chain from the corner. ’lt then backed half-way round, the rear wheels lodging in a drain, and - the car remaining* fast there. lV :

The witness said that another car passing outward from Gisborne, stopped! at the scene of the accident, ana then returned to the car lodged in the ditch. One man got out of the latter, and went on the second car hack to where the accident occurred. Witness followed and found the two girls and their bicycles lying on the road, the bicycles being on the grass strip. A Windy Night Cross-examined by Mr. Whitehead, the witness said 'that the night of the fatality was windy, but not rainy, and was not very dark. She could see the lights of the bicycles clearly as they turned the cemetery corner. They seemed to be on the correct side of the road. His Honour pointed out that the distance from the cemetery bend to where the witness had .been standing was nearer a quarter of a mile than half a mile, Mr. Whitehead agreeing with this statement. Witness, under further crossexamination, admitted that she was “no judge of tirjie or distances.” She maintained, however, that the two cyclists seemed to be riding steadily as usual.

(Proceeding.)