Bedridden witness gives evidence

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 58, 23 July 1974, Page 3

Bedridden witness gives evidence

| A case before the J Magistrate's Court | in Taupo last Thurs|day was at one stage l transferred to Taupo | Hospital for the l hearing of evidence » from a bedridden | witness. | Mr P. J. Trapski, S.M., | court officials and others * involved in the hearing of a Jfcharge of careless driving Jcausing death, all moved to $the hospital's plaster room £for half an hour, before j^returning to the courthouse #jfor the rest of the hearing. *1 Pleading not guilty to the J?charge was Malina Helena j£Poi, 19, a Taupo housewife. £>She was represented by Mr jjJA. P. Christiansen. After hearing evidence t^rom five prosecution wit£#nesses, the magistrate disJ«missed the case. I p He said he had njot been £shown "beyond the bounds ^ of possibilities" that there &was careless driving on the JPpart of the defendant. & The court was fold by g Senior-Sergeant R. Moncur £ that the charge arose from | an accident between 8* Tokaanu and Turangi at 1 10.15 p.m. on March 2. * The Land-Rover in which IjPoi and two men were Htravelling was involved in a ^head-on collision with pfenother Land-Rover, Ccausing the defendant's

vehicle to roll and hit a third vehicle. One of Poi's companions was found lying dead on the road and it was believed he coufd have been run over by another car, said Mr Moncur. The hearing then adjourned to the hospital to hear evidence from George David Adams, 19, a New Zealand Electricity Department lineman based in Taupo. From his bed, Mr Adams said he had left the Tokaanu Hotel just after 10 p.m. on March 2 with the defendant and a male friend. He said he had been "a bit intoxicated, I think", and, in answer to a question from SeniorSergeant Moncur: "It could have gone to drunkenness." Mr Adams said he could not remember who had been driving the LandRover at the time of the accident; he could remember nothing after leaving the hotel. Senior-Sergeant Moncur then applied to have the witness declared hosttte as his evidence was in. complete contradiction to that given in statements to police at Taumarunui and Taupo hospitals after the accident. "I do not know that he

is hostile at this stage. Put the contents of the statements to him," Mr Trapski advised. Mr Adams said he agreed with part of the first statement and most parts of the second statement. Since he had been in hospital he had had more time to remember, and he thought the deceased man had had the key to the Land-Rover outside the hotel "so he was probably driving." Back at the courthouse two Turangi youths, Dean Kerry Turner, 18, a Ministry of Works and Development employee, and Reginald Tamati, 15, student, told of driving in another Land-Rover toward Waihi when they saw the lights of a vehicle coming towards them on a bend in the road. "We heard this big bang, and that was it," Turner said. He said he thought his vehicle was near the centre of the road, but he did not cross the white line on to the incorrect side. Constable R. F. Burgess, now stationed at Te Puke, described attending the scene of the accident and finding one man lying dead on the road. Adams was lying nearby with severe leg and head

injuries. From his observations and markings he made at the scene, Constable Burgess said he was unable to firmly establish the point of impact of the two vehicles, but indications were that the defendant's car had collided with the other Land-Rover on her wrong side of the road. Constable David Jones told in evidence of interviewing the defendant on April 10 at Taupo, when she said she had been driving the Land-Rover at the time of the accident. She said she remembered seeing another car run over the deceased man and keep on going, Constable Jones agreed with Mr Christiansen under cross-examination that he knew both the dead man and Adarris had been disqualified drivers. He said it had occurred to him that defendant was covering up. In his summing up, Mr Trapski said he was convinced that there was a prima facie case that the defendant was using the Land-Rover on the night in question. But there was no prima facie case of carelessness by the defendant and he had to dismiss the case.