"He was a marked man in Southampton, noted for driving fast" - the devastating testimony of corn factor C W Campbell who witnessed a horror crash in the town centre.

It was general election day and a large group of men had gathered in Above Bar to cast their vote when a pony and trap approached, so concerned at its speed that a police officer cautioned him of the impending danger. But within seconds, it crashed into the crowd, not only badly injuring shoemaker Tom Burt but causing the driver James Ford to fall out.

"It rendered me insensible," Burt was to tell a judge some three months later on June 30, 1880. "I was taken to the infirmary where I remained for about a week, and ever since then I have had to be attended to medically. For four days, I could scarcely move. I suffered a good deal of pain, especially in the leg which prevented me from working. I have also suffered general weakness and giddiness."

Burt stood in the witness box in the civil court at Hampshire Assizes where he sued Ford for damages for what he cited as "his furious driving" while he was walking in the road.

He was supported by Dr White who feared he would forever be troubled by discomfort in the knee. "He has rested for a considerable time and I think he has a tolerably generous diet and tonics, but the pain in the knee seems to have returned and I doubt whether a man of 60 years of age will be precisely the same man again."

Pc Longman estimated Ford had been travelling at about 15mph and he and another officer cleared the crowd to enable the pony and trap to pass but with a warning about his speed. "I cautioned him but as he got a few yards away, he whipped the horse."

Pc Springer agreed about the speed. "When he got to the crowd, the horse pulled itself up as if not knowing where to go, when the defendant struck it twice and the horse rushed into the crowd, throwing down a woman and Mr Burt. The defendant himself fell out of the cab and I took him into custody."

In his defence, Ford insisted the crowd had been at fault, claiming he had been pelted with flour, egg shells filled with tar and other missiles as he converged on them. A statement, however, that no witness on either side corroborated.

"They frightened the pony which I drew towards the pavement and accidentally knocked down Mr Burt and a woman. I myself was thrown out of the trap as the horse fell on it side. I was doing no more than six miles an hour and the man who was with me was also thrown out of the trap. It was entirely an accident."

Brush maker Mr.Berry, who had been looking out of his upstairs bow window, endorsed his evidence that he had reined the pony to one side to avoid the crowd. "But when it got onto the pavement, it slipped and ell, knocking down a woman and pitching Mr Ford and his companion out of the trap."  

Directing jurors as to the law, Lord Chief Justice Coleridge said in cases of this nature, there was always contradictory evidence about speed.

"There can be no doubt however as to the reasonable care which ought to be taken through a street like the Above Bar in Southampton on an election day, and the noisier the crowd was, the greater care should have been. 

"If you should believe the witnesses for the plaintiff, he is entitled to your verdict. On the other hand, if he was barely going, say at six miles an hour, though it might have been seven, and it all took place by way of an accident, the horse being frightened by the noise and excitement, you should adopt that view for the defendant."

Following retirement, jurors found for the plaintiff and awarded him £30 in damages.