WRONG SIDE OF ROAD

Hokitika Guardian, 23 February 1929, Page 6

WRONG SIDE OF ROAD

MOTOR-CYCLIST CAUSES DEATH OF YOUisG WOMAN.

NAPIER, February 21

A young man, Neil Fitzroy Holderness, appeared at the Supreme Court to-day, before Mr Justice Ostler, to answer charges of riding a motorcycle on September 20th in a negligent manner so as to cause the death of a young woman, Francis Mary Rhodes, and injury to another, Edith Maud Jarvis.

The Crown based its case on the excessive speed of the cycle and the fact that accused was on the wrong side of the road.

Evidence was given by one eye-wit-ness that the speed was at least 30 miles an hour.

A sister of deceased asserted that accused travelled six chains while she walked 11 feet-.

The injured woman said she saw the cyclist 12 chains away, and was struck after she had walked 28. V feet. Evidence was also called showing that the accident occurred on the extreme right of the bitumen track. The defence maintained that the estimate of the speed by the sister ol deceased and the other young woman was incorrect, calculations making the speed either 111 or 78 miles an hour. After the jury had returned a verdict of guilty of travelling on the wrong side, with a strong recommendation to mercy, his Honour said that had he tried the case himself he would have found the Crown had not proved its case, and would have returned a verdict accordingly. However, as the jury had returned a. verdict of guilty of riding on the wrong side of the road he had to pass sentence. It was not a bad case of negligence, as there were iio suggestions of drink, reckless speeding, or running away, as sometimes were the case in such accidents. It was purely an error of judgment accused bad been guilty of. Accused was convicted and ordeied to come up for sentence if called upon. His present driving license was cancelled and he was prohibited from driving until 1931.