A CONVICTION

Hokitika Guardian, 8 May 1929, Page 6

A CONVICTION

FOR NEGLIGENT DRIVING

[By Telegraph, Per Press Association.]

CHRISTCHURCH, Alay 7

John Boyd Clark was charged at the Supreme Court to-day with having caused the death of Maureen Doris Alitcheil by negligently driving a motor car on Alarcli 3.lst. Ho was convicted and was remanded for sentence.

A party of four, two young men and two young women, had been at a dance on the evening of Alarcli 31st. They left in accused’s motor car to go to supper. It was a wet night. r lhe pavement was slippery, and the visibility bad. At the turn from High Street In to ALanchester Street, the car skidded, struck a post, and overturned. Aliss Alitcheil was thrown out and was killed.

The other male passenger was Cecil Spence Poiiliiigton, a. solicitor, and he was seriously injured. The case against the accused was that he drove the car negligently and at a speed which, under the conditions obtaining, was dangerous. It was not suggested that either the accused or any of his companions had taken liquor. Several witnesses gave evidence as to the speed of the car. All agreed that the speed was dangerous in the circumstances.

Herbert Roland Isaacs, a shop manager, of Dunedin, who arrived on the scene immediately alter the accident, claimed to have experience of racing motor cars. He said that Clark’s car had started with a two-wheeled skid, and had developed a four wheel skid. He estimated, from the skid marks of the wheels on the pavement, that the car must have been travelling at more than forty miles an hour. No evidence was called for the defence. The jury deliberated for nesyly an hour and a half, returning a verdict as stated.