MOTORIST ON TRIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 894, 11 February 1930, Page 13

MOTORIST ON TRIAL

WOMAN KILLED BY CAR FATALITY AT PONSONBY A motorist, Derek Norman Moore-Wright, stood his trial in the Supreme' Court today on a charge of negligent driving, causing death. The indictment arose out of a fatality in Jervois Road, Ponsonby, on January 3, when Mrs. Josephine Clark was mortally injured through being knocked down by Wright’s car. after she had alighted from a tram. Mr. Justice Herdman was on the Bench. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr. Meredith, conducted the prosecution and Mr. Sullivan defended the accused. A passenger on a Herne Bay-bound tram, Thomas J. Nash, said he noticed a baby car travelling very fast behind a second tram going in the same direction. The second tram stopped at Hamilton Road, but the motor-car did not slacken speed and after just missing a woman who was alighting from the rear platform, crashed into Mrs. Clark, who got off the front of the tram. The woman was thrown about three feet, and the motor-car swerved into the gutter and capsized after hitting a tree. The motorman, John H. Goodchild, declared that the tram had stopped when Mrs. Clark alighted. “When the motor-car passed the rear of the tram. I leaned out to look,” said the conductor, Albert Mason. “I heard a scream—the woman was thrown up in the air and fell on her head and on her back.” Mrs. Fanny Mason, described how Mrs. Clark alighted from the tram, and she followed. The motor-car flashed past, witness jumping back to escape. Mrs. Clark, however, being struck by the car, which was skidding.

Medical evidence was to the effect that death was caused by severe shock, as a result of severe internal injuries.

Irving Clark, who was a passenger on the second tram, said he was standing on the footboard, in readiness to alight when the motor-car flashed past fast, about 30 to 35 m.p.h. Witness’s son called out “Its an accident” after the woman was struck, and although he saw the victim picked up he was not aware until reaching home the woman was his wife.

“The motor-car was spinning round on its four wheels when it hit Mrs. Clark. It had spun round several times,” declared Motorman Ernest G. Shreeve. “The left side of the car hit Mrs. Clark, who was thrown on to the bonnet, and as the motorcar struck the tree, she was tossed into the air,” he added. The accused, in evidence, said that on rounding the bend in Jervois Road he noticed two trams 50 to 75 yards ahead. His speed was then about 20 miles an hour. He overtook the hatter train near the Islington Street crossing. After passing it, he suddenly noticed the other tram stopped just ahead. The sudden application of the brakes caused his car to skid and spin round, and Anally pile up in the gutter. He did not see anyone on the road. He notified the liolice by telephone of the accident. (Proceeding.)