SEQUEL TO ACCIDENT

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 6, 10 July 1984, Page 7

SEQUEL TO ACCIDENT

An accident which was reported in the Waimarino Bulletin on 6 March this year, came to its final conclusion in the Ohakune District Court on Thursday 21 june when Judge E. Unwin dismissed a charge against Graham John Venn of carelessly using a motor vehicle. Venn was travelling south on the Desert Road on 24 February when he collided with a rubbish collection truck, driven by Mr P.J. Wheeler of Waiouru, that was turning into Helwan Camp, north of Waiouru. After hearing different accounts of events from Mr Wheeler and three territorial soldiers, counsel for Venn, Mr M.S. McKechnie, submitted that the charge should be dismissed. Wheeler said that he had pulled off the road on the left to wait for traffic to pass, then when he felt the road was clear, turned right into the camp gateway. The soldiers all said that the truck' pulled up behind two army vehicles a distance back from the camp gate and pulled out on to the road, proceeding south for about ten seconds, before turning. Venn does not recall the accident and was unable to give evidence. However, in a statement to police had said that he had been travelling at about one hundred km/ h. All four pasengers in the car were injured, one passenger, Mr Stephen Parker, seriously ehough to be transferred to Palmerston North Hospital. Mr Wheeler was not seriously hurt in the collision.