MOTORIST ON TRIAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 May 1938, Page 9

MOTORIST ON TRIAL

ALLEGATIONS OF NEGLIGENT DRIVING DEATH OF A CYCLIST (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, May 16. Twenty-two witnesses were called by the Crown in the trial of Kaspar Aray Webley, who appeared before Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court this morning, charged that he negligently drove a car, thereby causing the death of Joseph Quinn. Webley pleaded not guilty. The fatality occurred, said the Crown Prosecutor, Mr W. U. Brown, on practically a straight road running from Shirley to the main North Road. Quinn was coming south, cycling home from work, when a car driven by accused and travelling north collided with him, killing him practically instantaneously. Of five witnesses who were in the vicinity, said Mr Brown, none apparently actually saw the collision, but a family living nearby had their attention drawn by the noise of the car, and estimated its speed at between- 60 and 65 miles an hour. After the collision the car stopped in a gutter on the correct side of the road, but skid marks for 160 feet indicated that the car had been on its wrong side. Evidence of Webley’s movements would be to the effect that at 3 p.m. a constable warned him that he was too drunk to drive a car, that his wife, from whom he was separated, saw him between 4 and 4.30 p.m. and considered him intoxicated, and that a man who saw him at 4.30 p.m. had some liquor with him and saw him drive away. After the accident, which occurred at 6.15 p.m., Webley was taken to hospital, where he was examined by a doctor at 8 p.m. The doctor would say that Webley was sufficiently sober to drive a car, but showed signs of drinking during the day.

Ten witnesses were called for the defence. The hearing was adjourned late in the afternoon, the addresses of counsel and the summing-up of the judge remaining to be heard tomorrow morning.

Extraordinary interest was taken in the evidence today, a large number of persons occupying the galleries.