DEATH OF A GIRL

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20494, 10 May 1938, Page 8

DEATH OF A GIRL

MOTORIST PUNISHED "JUSTICE NOT SADISTIC” EXTENUATING FACTORS Further comment on negligent driving cases was made by the Chief Justice. Sir Michael Myers, in the Supreme Court, Hamilton, to-day, sentencing Bernard Zinsli, labourer, of Te Kuiti (Mr E. M. Mackersey), following his conviction on a charge of negligent driving causing the death of Edna Margaret Walsh, nf Hamilton. Zinsli was fined £3O and ordere'd to pay the costs of the prosecution. In addition, his driving license was cancelled and he was prohibited from obtaining another for three years. The jury found that the death of the injured person was caused by prisoner’s negligent driving. On the evidence, that verdict was amply justified. In His Honour’s opinion. “But,” he added, “just as the verdict of the jury must depend upon the events, and the facts and circumstances of each ease, so must the question of sentence. Justice is not sadistic. It does not require that every person convicted of an offence of this kind, or any other offence, should necessarily be punished by being sent to prison. Suffered From Fatigue “Now, in your case, while the verdict connotes that the suggestion offered on your behajf that you were suddenly overtaken by vertigo could not be accepted, it is the fact that you were suffering from an abscess in the ear. It is also the fact that you had had a tiring day, driving from Te Ku»ti to Auckland in the morning, returninsr almost immediately in the car, but not driving and that at 3.30 p.m. you took the car out again and drove it. "I am satisfied that you were suffering from fatigue, intensified by your physical illness and that you should not have be»»n driving. But. I feel equally satisfied that you did not appreciate your condition and the dange’r consequent upon it. That was no doubt the view taken by the .jury and their reason for recommending you to leniency. “In all the circumstances of the case, I think that the interests of justice and of the public con be sufficiently served without sending you to prison.

Certelnty of Conviction "I have repeatedly said—and other nidges have similarly expressed themselves—that that certainty of conviction in a proper ease is much more important than the quantum of the sentence. The certainty that the jury will convict where negligent driving is proved and the’ knowledge that the prohibition of the grant of a driving license for a period of years will almost certainly follow a conviction, should in themselves operate as a strong deterrent against offences of this character.* apart from the probability of a term of imprisonment being imposed. “In your rase there is no suggestion that intoxicating liquor was in any wav responsible for \..ur negligence.”