PROSECUTION FAILS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 101, 15 May 1937, Page 6

PROSECUTION FAILS

1 r Bench Dismisses Charge of Negligent Driving FATAL ACCIDENT SEQUEL Ernest Eeginald Hnlford, of Port Ahuriri, metal worker, aged 22, was discharged by Mr J. Miller, S.M., in the Napier Magistrate's Conrt yesterday afternoon at the conclusion of police evidence against him on a chaTge, that he negligently drove a motor-cyele in Breakwater road, Napier, on May 1, thereby causing the death of William, Alexander Clark, a retied hookseller, aged 70. The Magistrate said that the evidence was by no means direct bnt was composed largely of surmise, and, while he considered that the police were quite correct in bringing the pro* ' secution, he did npt conslder that a jury would convict. In the inquest into the death of Mr Clark, which was conducted with the proceedings, Mr Miller, as coroner, returned a verdict that death was due to haemorrhage into the brain stem, the result of concussion cansed in a colli* sion with a motor-cycle ridden by Ernest Eeginald Hulford. He added an expression of sympathy to the bereaved relatives. Mr H. Dowling defended Hulford, the police case being conducted by Sergeant G. F. Boniseh of Port Ahuriri. 'A seaman from the s.s. Poolta, .Her bert Stanley Hulford, a brother of the deiendant, said defendant had met him at the Breakwater at about five o'clock on the evening of ' the accident., With witness on the pillion they set off toward Port Ahurir on the motorcycle, going at aboiit 20 miles an hour. There were no footrests for the pillionrider. It was still qnite light, there! being no necessity to lise the headlight Witness first saw decea'sed within a few paces of his ga'te when the machine was 15 yards away. He appeared to take a few steps aiong the footpath and. then , cross the . road diagonaily, away from the machine. : A bundle of 1 garden xefus© was beneath his arm, and he was walking with a distinct stoop. Defendant- gave one long blast on the horn while -the deceased was still on. the footpath. Defendant, • witness added, swerved toward .the right,. as it- appeared that there was .sufficient .room to . cross in front of him. Deceased did not hesitate, as far ais witness could see, and did hot alter direction. He then appeared to fall on to the bicycle, and witness did not remember any' more until he rose from the road after the accident. Deceased. was then. lying beside the machine on the leftrlxand gide of it. When the sergeant put .the . question: "Do you considor that, had you kept the correct course, you would have avoided the deceased?" the Magistrate observed that the question depended upon the time deceased stepped off the footpath. Witness replied in the negative. j An eye-witness of the accident, Aubrey Rumpler, of Napier, eleetrician, said that as he was cyeling along Breakwater1 road he first saw the motor-cycle on its correct side of the road, about 80 yards away. It was going at 20 or 25 miles an hour at the most. The horn on the cycle sounded when the machine was at the edge of Mr Clark 's property. Witness was not watching the machine closely, but saw it swerve and then fall down. The first sight he had of Mr Clark was when he was on the ground. Sergeant Boniseh: Where was the cycle when it swerved? Witness: On-its correct side. And where was it when it fellf — "On its wrong side." Was it a deliberate swerve or did it seem that. the machine became out of control? — "It seemed to become out of control." The Bench: Was it a swerve out of control or a swerve to avoid the man? Witness: It might be either. Sergeant Boniseh; Have you had a talk with the Hulford boys about this? Witness: .No. Constable K. . J. Sutherland gave evidence that defendant said he could not remember what had occurred. The dejeased did not speak. On the bitumen on the seafront side of the road was a jiair of spectacles which had been idehtified as belonging to the deceased. On the rdilway lines, about 15 feet from the cycle, was a bundle of canna leaves. A similar piece of vegetation was x'ound on the mudguard of the cycle. A mark on the roadway extended 32 feet, patches of fresh benzine between the railway lines indicating where the eycle had come to rest. Opposite the end of the mark, but almost 3 feet ,-6 inches from the rails, were bloodstains on the bitumen; a tyre mark on the bitument leading to them indicated that the cycle had fallen sideways to the right and skidded along on its side for a distance of 32 feet. It would be liard to estimate the speed from the marks, but this would be in conformity with acceleration in an. attempt to avoid an object su'ddenly in the patE ojt the machine. The Bench: The thing about this case is that it appears to be all surmise. . There were no marks, to indicate that the brake had been applied. at, any time, continued the constable. He then read a statement by the defendant, which said that deceased did not appear to hear the horn, but, when a third of the distance across the road, hesiiated. Defendant continued a swerve to the right, as he considered it to.be. the only safe course to take, but deceased walked forward and was Struck by the machine. He did not apply the brakes, as this . did not ®ppear necessary at the time it could have been done. At this stage the Magistrate asked if the police could carry the case any further, and, on receiving a reply in che negatiye, delivered his verdict.