Botanical Evidence in a Motor Accident Case
| Author | F. J. Betteridge |
| Date | 01 July 1940 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4001300313 |
| Published date | 01 July 1940 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Botanical Evidence in a Motor
Accident Case
By
INSPECTOR
F. J. BETTERIDGE
Wiltshire
Constabulary
AT
3.40p.m. on the 14th October, 1938, at Stapleford,
Wiltshire, a maroon
20
h.p, "
Standard"
saloon, driven
from the direction of Salisbury towards Warminster, turned
off the main road by taking a fork to the right.
In
negotiating
the slight right-hand bend, the near side of the car mounted
the grass verge, brushed along the hedge and crashed into a
telegraph pole at the side of the road.
The
two occupants of the car, a woman driver and her
sister, received head injuries, and whilst they were being
treated at the scene of the accident the body of a third woman
was found in the garden adjoining the point where the car
first struck the hedge. No statement could be taken from the
occupants at the time owing to the nature of their
injuries-
concussion and
abrasions-but
both the constable and the
doctor declared that the driver smelt of drink, though the latter
was not prepared to say whether she showed signs of intoxica-
tion. Somewhat later, when the contents of the car were being
removed to a place of safety, two bottles containing whisky,
a glass tumbler and a broken soda-water syphon, were found
in the rear compartment. Neither woman made any mention
of the dead woman at the time.
Acareful examination of the scene of the accident revealed
two brake marks, 42 feet and 62 feet long, obviously made by
the two nearside wheels of the car and ending at the grass
verge at a point where a collection of dry sticks were lying.
Facing this spot was a gap in the hedge beyond which the body
of the woman was found.
From
this point the car travelled
afurther
28t
feet into the telegraph pole, which was cracked
334
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