KNOCKED WOMAN DOWN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 422, 2 August 1928, Page 13

KNOCKED WOMAN DOWN

INTOXICATION CHARGE FAILS fSpecial to THE SUE) WELLINGTON. Wednesday. Cliarges against Guilio Nervi, an Italian fisherman, aged 47, of negligently driving a motor-car and thereby causing bodily injury to Mrs. Mary Louis A. Ward, and of being in charge of a motor-ear while intoxicated, were dismissed by Mr. E. Page, F.M.. in the Magistrate's Court to-day. Evidence showed that Mrs. Ward was knocked down in Adelaide Road on May 30 last. Sergeant Hodgson stated he saw accused staggering about the footpath. He was drunk, being one of the worst eases in this respect that has been handled at Mount Cook Police Station. The doctor’s certificate read: “It was just possible to detect that he had taken alcohol. He was not drunk in the ordinary sense of the word.” A constable and the watch-house-keeper at Mount Cook corroborated the sergeant’s evidence, saying that Nervi was undoubtedly drunk. Three witnesses stated that he was quite sober. The magistrate stopped the evidence saying that the woman walked off the footpath, seemed to hesitate, and was then struck by the car. This clearly negatived the suggestion of negligence on the part of the driver. After the accident. Nervi was very excited and unsteady. but quite sober. His manner may have been caused by the knowledge that the woman he had knocked down was seriously injured. The evidence was not sufficient to convict.