SEQUEL TO FATALITY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 50, 27 January 1938, Page 7

SEQUEL TO FATALITY

CHARGE AGAINST MOTORIST. WELLINGTON CASE. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Jan. 26. A fa-ta] accident which occurred in Broadway, Miramar, on November 12, was recalled in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, to-day. when Violet Helen Maud Taylor, single, aged 22, was charged with negligently driving a motor car, thereby causing the death of Kathleen Bensley Thornhill. Accused, who was represented l>v Air W. P. Rollings, pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Sul>-Inspector J. A. Dempsey conducted the prosecution. The principal witness for the Crown, Leslie Glenny Smith, radio salesman, said that at about 9.15 p.m. on November 12 he was driving along Broadway, in the direction of Seatoun, and when rounding the bend was . over-t'-’.ken and parsed by a car driven by Miss Taylor. His speedometer was registering 30 miles an hour. Instead of coming back to the left of the road, accused’s car appeared to keep straight on when it passed him. It was travelling about the centre of the road, and after it had passed him it appeared to get on to the wrong side. Witness said that when he first saw Miss Thornhill she was about half-way across the road. She was then between one and two chains ahead of him. When he first saw her the car that passed would bo a little short of a chain ahead of nun. After the car had passed him there was no obstruction to prevent it pulling back to the correct side of the road. Miss Thornhill, who was walking at a moderate pace, began to run and had run only three or four paces when she was struck. , “From the time I first saw the woman walking it appeared to me that the driver of the car was trying to head the woman off, as the car veered slightly to the right,” continued witness “The woman was struck by the front of the car. The car appeared to slow up slightly just prior to the impact. When she was struck, Miss Thornhill appeared to be about hallway between the extreme right of the tram-rail and the extreme left of the kerb I saw her fall and stopped, Inc other car went to the correct side of the road and stopped further along the road.” . . . ~ Witness said that it was a fine night and the visibility was very clear. Cross-examined by Air Rollings, he said the swing to the right was made by accused just before the impact. It would be betwen the time Aliss Thornhill started to run and the time of tho impact. . Ten other witnesses were called in support of the Crown’s case. • Air Rollings submitted that the case should not be sent on to the jury because “there was no evidence of negligence on the part of accused, Substantially,” he said, “it was a case ot a pedestrian at night running across the roadway into the track of an approacliing car.” The Magistrate: I took it that tho motorist was on her wrong side. Air Rollings: Accused drove on to the wrong side, but it is clear that the swerve to the wrong side was made when the woman started to run and in an endeavour to avoid her. The Magistrate said he proposed to commit accused for trial.