WANGANUI FATALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1921, Page 5

WANGANUI FATALITY.

“SHOCKING STATE OF AFFAIRS. ’ In summing up the evidence at the inquest on Robert Adamson, one of the victims of the Wanganui motor accident, the coroner, Mr. Wyvern Wilson, said the evidence disclosed a shocking state of affairs which had had a distressing and sad termination. The evidence showed that the driver of the car, Mullins, came into town shortly before midday on Easter Saturday with his cousin, Roach, and his sister. Mullins left his sister at the house of a friend and went down the Avenue. The car was left at a garage. Mullins went to lunch at a fish shop. Before lunch he had had one drink. During the afternoon Mullins appeared to have had nine drinks. He stated that in the evening he had no tea. About 7 he went to take his sister home from Keith Street. The car came along Dublin Street and passed Harrison Street without giving any warning. On passing the tramshed no warning was given, nor was any warning given on coming to Beil Street. There was evidence that the car was travelling at a high rate of speed; Mullins stated 12 miles an hour, but that obviously was not correct. The injuries to the car. showed

that it had been travelling at a higher rate of speed. The evidence led him to believe that the car was not dirven with caution in a dark street. He would have expected a man travelling on a dark night to put on his headlights so that he could see. He did that at the moment of the impact, according to the evidence. Even the dim lights must have cast some light, and it was difficult to know how Mullins did not see the two deceased who evidently were crossing the road. Proceeding, the coroner said that he considered that Mullins had not kept a look out? He appeared to have been driving negligently without, sounding his horn at the corners and travelled in a manner dangerous to the public and at an excessive rate of speed. Both deceased were 20 years of ago, young people with all their faculties, and in the prime of life and health, and they had been knocked over and killed. The only solution appeared to be that Mullins, with a companion, was drinking about town all the afternoon. He did not say that he was

drunk. The evidence was that two witnesses did not observe any signs of liquor, but his senses must have been deadened by his potations during the afternoon. The coroner then found that the deaths of both deceased were due to injuries received as the result of being knocked down by Bernard Mullins, and that the said Bernard Mullins, did cause their deaths by driving the car negligently and at a speed and in a manner dangerous to the public.

At the conclusion of the inquiry, Mullins was arrested and charged with manslaughter. He was remanded for a week? bail being allowed in one surety of £5OO.