MOTOR FATALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1920, Page 5

MOTOR FATALITY.

GIRL OF FOURTEEN BLAMED. NO ACTION TO BE TAKEN. By TelejTapa,—Press Aun.—CopyrUjut. Gisborne, Last Night. An inquest concerning the death of Bertie Athol Rhodes, a returned soldier, who died from injuries caused by a motor collision, was concluded today, i The Coroner (Mr. Barton) said he had visited the scene of the accident,, and found, according to the evidence, marks on the roadway. The speed-of the ear could not be less than twenty-five miles an hour. : Tliis was not a 'safe speed, and the car was not being driven as it should have been. He returned the following verdict: "That Bertio Athol Rhodes died at the Gisborne hospital cu September 20 as a result of a collision of a, motor cycle driven by him, and a motor car driven by Mary' Alice Leslie." The Coroner said that was his verdict, and ho would take the responsibility of saying that the girl should not be further connected with the case. There was an anomaly that while engineers were required to show qualificacation for running stationary engines, a child of 14 years wag allowed to drive round a street in a car of 40-h.p-The driver of the car had not shown the discretion due from one controlling a motdr car, but when the driver was a girl of 14 years it was not reasonable to expect much discretion. His Worship took full responsibility for making the verdict an • open one. He wished, however, to add the following rider: "In my opinion it is urgently necessary that the Gisborne Borough Council should legislate, firstly, to provide a system of licensing drivers of motor cars, licenses to be issued only to adult persona, each of whom proves to the satisfaction of the Council his ability to handle and drive a motor car in borough traffic; secondly, to prohibit, under a penalty, the driving of a car by a person other than a licensed driver, within the borough."