CART WITHOUT LIGHTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 August 1922, Page 4

CART WITHOUT LIGHTS.

FATAL COLLISION FOLLOWS. * CONVICTION FOR MANSLAUGHTER. I By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last NightAt the Supreme Court a verdict of manslaughter, with a recommendation to mercy, was returned againM a Maori named Nuku Meremana in respect of the death of Howell Richard Roberts Williams, as the outcome of a collision at Thames on April 15 between a motor-car and a cart driven by accused. The case for the Crown was that the cart had no lights and consequently was not seen by the motor driver in time to avert a collision in rounding a bend. The left-hand shaft of the cart pierced the windscreen, striking Williams on the head. The car was travelling at about fourteen miles an hour. Besides Meremana the cart contained two white men and three Maori women, all six showing signs of liquor, though accused was not drunk. Counsel for the defence called no evidence, but emphasised that all the witnesses agreed that accused was driving slowly, and prior. to the accident was on his correct side of the road. He argued that accused was not the essential cause of the accident, and it could not be said his negligence was sufficiently culpable to make him guilty of manslaughter. Sentence was deferred.