COMMITTED FOR TRIAL

Southland Times, Issue 24834, 28 August 1942, Page 6

COMMITTED FOR TRIAL

DUNEDIN MOTORIST IN COURT Leonard Joseph Langsted Morgan, of Dunedin, a company manager, aged 34, was yesterday committed for trial to the Supreme Court on charges of negligently driving a motor-car and causing bodily injury and of failing to stop after an accident and give such assistance as was possible. The taking of evidence in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday arose from an accident in Tweed street on the night of August 13, in which Douglas Tomlins, a cyclist, aged 14, was knocked down by a motor-car and suffered broken legs and arms. The accused pleaded not guilty to both charges and reserved his defence. Ball totalling £2OO was allowed. Mr R. C. Abernethy presided at the hearing, Mr J. B. Thomson, of Dunedin, represented the accused and Chief Detective R. Thompson conducted the hearing on behalf of the police. HEARD A CRASH Leslie Tomlins, aged 15, a brother of the boy who was injured, said he and his brother were cycling along Tweed street. Near the intersection of Nelson street he saw a car approaching and he went ahead so that his brother could cycle in behind him. The car was on the centre of the road, the witness was cycling on the edge of the gravel and his brother was on the edge of the bitumen. His brother had dropped behind and then he heard the sound of a crash. He got off his bicycle and saw his brother lying on the ground, on the grass on the other side of the road. The car, which he thought was travelling at about 50 miles an hour, did not stop. . To Mr Thomson: He and his brother did not have lights on their machines; they were carrying torches with click switches. He could not say whether his brother had his torch switched on at the time. Mrs M. M. Currie, who, accompanied by Mrs L. E. Miller, was cycling along Tweed street on the night of the accident, said .she saw the two- cyclists approaching and also heard a car coming behind. The car was speeding. She gained the impression that the car was going too fast to pull up and that it had either to run into her bicycle or swerve and hit the approaching cyclists head on. FLUNG INTO THE AIR The car swerved snd hit one of the boy cyclists who was flung up into the air level with the telegraph wires, continued the witness. He landed on the side of the road. She did not think the car was being driven at a reasonable speed. Mrs Miller also gave evidence of what occurred at the time of the accident and said that after the collision the lights of the car were switched off and remained off. “A TERRIBLE COLLISION” Mrs W. E. Burrow, who saw the accident, said she saw the boys riding along the road "very much on their correct side.” "Then there was a terrible collision. The car collided with one of the boys.” she said. She could not say if the car was on the correct side of the road when the collision occurred. “After the impact,” said the witness, “X stepped off the footpath on to the edge of the grass and held out my hand and shouted: ‘Coward! Stop!’ The car did not stop, but the lights of the car instantly were put out. I did not see the lights go on again.” Constable T. Thompson, who took measurements of marks on the road, said that from the beginning of the skid marks to the spot where the boy was found he measured a distance of 61 feet. Constable Claridge, of Dunedin, produced a statement made by the accused at the Dunedin police station on the morning after the accident. In his statement the accused said that he would be travelling along Tweed street at about 25 miles an hour. He did not see any vehicles just before the accident. He collided with a cyclist whom he had not seen. He did not stop after the accident, and he was probably influenced in his action in not stopping by the smell of liquor on his breath. He had taken four small whiskies at Bluff about 4 pan. on the day of the accident. “The cycle was not visible to me until I was right on it,” he stated.