HUTT ROAD TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 9 June 1927, Page 1

HUTT ROAD TRAGEDY

.M AXSLA EG HTER CHARG E

[by TnI.EOItAPH —FIJI I’IIKSS ASSOCIATION. IVELLINGTON. June S.

The ITutt Road smash on -May 24th, j iu which an Essex sedan ear violently collided with a service motor car traveiling from Mastorton, resulting in j the death of Henry Bryan Kenny and in serious injury to Miss Madge Wil- j liams, was investigated in the Magistrate's Court to-day before Mr E. Page S'. AT. After numerous witnesses had given evidence, Ernest George Reid, alias Edward Harper, a labourer, aged 29, and Henry Stacey, a labourer, aged 83. the occupants of the Essex ear at the time of the collision, were committed to the Supreme Court for trial on a charge of manslaughter, in that by r unlawfully using and recklessly driving a. motor car, owned by Bert Somerville Lyon, a. merchant, they killed Henry Bryan Kenny, driver of the service car. They were also committed c on charge of doing bodily harm to .Madge Williams. Bail was not applied 1 for. . After hearing all the evidence, the Afagistrate sat as Coroner in an inquest on. Kenny, and found that on May 24th deceased was driving a ser- 1 vice motor car from Alasterton to A\ ellington. and while on the lTutt Rond. travelling towards Wellington, an ‘ Essex motor ear, occupied hv Harper 1 and Staeev, and driven at. a high I rate of speed, came into violent collision with the ear driven by deceased. 1 Tn that eollision the deceased was ‘ killed. The evidence was unanimous on 1 the point that the speed of the Es- ( sex ear did not fall below 35 miles an hour at any stage of its journey on I the llutt Road, and rose at times to ‘ between 50 and 55 miles an hour, at ■ which speed it hit the service ear. < The witnesses were uncertain as to 1 which of the two accused was driving the Essex car. 1 Lambert R. Fountain said that he saw a. grey motor car stop in (hew s Lane at three-thirty on Alay 21. Ihe two occupants got out and went across Willis Road. About live to ten minutes later they returned and started the car after difficulty. In his opinion they were intoxicated. He recalled the incident when he read ot the siunsli Llit-* next dny. The driver of ;i trackless tram to Kniwarra stated that a grey Sedan passed him at four minutes past seven going at over fifty, miles an hour, swaying from one side of the road to the "other. He. took his tram off the bitumen in a hurry, as he thought the car was going to run into him. After it passed, it nearly collided with a horse-drawn lorry, and continued at a high speed till out of sight. Patrol Constable Ruddle said lie was sitting on a stationary motor cycle at Kaiwarrn, when he saw the mi travelling at forty miles an hour and bold out: a. hand to stop then. He rode ill front of the car. which sti did not stop.. He had to pull olf the road to avoid being run over. Continuing the chase lie saw the car suddenly go to the wrong side, and ciasli in the service ear. Patrol Constable Riddell said he overtook the Essex car at Nghaurauga and signalled it to stop. It did not do s„ lie rode in front of it hut had to pull off the road to avoid being run over hv it. and as the ear went on its speed increased. Suddenly it went to the wrong side of the road and crashed into the Alasterton car, which vas on its right side of the road coming towards Wellington. After fihe collision lie found a small flask of wl,.sk> and broken tumbler in the Essex. Sidney Daniel Waters, journalist, who was a passenger in the service ear said ho first noticed the approaching sedan car when it was about a hundred raids away. Tt was approaching at a row high speed, being driven ill a very erratic, manner. “A second or two hater.” he said, “the sedan hit us .striking with terrific force tlio ugh hand side of the radiator." A\ it ness estimated the service ear was trat eili„,r about 30 miles an hour at the time. Witness was stunned for a lew seconds, hut then got out of the ear. Airs Mcßae and her baby, who had been next to the driver on the journey r-ere sitting on the kerb. Miss AN dliam o was huddled up in the back seat of the car. where she had been sitting nt first. It seemed as if she was dead Witness then walked along the front . of the ear and looked at the driver. ' .\t the moment he was not dead, k- ' pause his body was heaving up and down. Half the side ot h.s head tus torn off and a moment later he died The police read statements by the accused, each blaming the other as 1 driver of the car. They admitted hav-