TRAFFIC OFFENCES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 211, 14 June 1940, Page 6

TRAFFIC OFFENCES

MOTORISTS BEFORE COURT. SEVERAL HEAVY FINES IMPOSED ASHBURTON CASES' HEARD TODAY. Practically all the cases heard in the Ashburton Magistrate’s Court this morning wei'e concerned with breaches of the traffic regulations. Mr H„ Morgan, S.M., was on the Bench. Thomas Godfrey Lister was charged with having stopped a motor lorry other than with the left side of the vehicle close to the kerb. He was fined 10s and 11s costs. # * ' It was stated that the vehicle was stopped on the wrong side of the road and a child, running out from behind it, ran into a motor-car travelling down the street.

Ewen Farquhar McLennan was charged with having driven a car without due care aijd attention. It was stated that defendant backed his cai out of the Arcade and collided with another car, damaging it badly and moving off at once. Defendant was fined £3, with 12s costs. Alexander William Anderson, charged with having operated a motor vehicle without a rear reflector and with having failed to carry a current warrant of fitness, was fined £l, with 10s costs on the first charge and 10s with 10s costs, on the second. It was stated that' the car was filled with furniture which obscured the view to the rear.

Sequel to Collision. Leo Charles Meachen (Mr W. F. Tracy) pleaded not guilty to a charge of having driven a motor vehicle without due care and attention. Constable T. Harris produced a plan showing the locality in Tinwald where defendant, driving a petrol waggon, collided with a railway truck that was being pushed across the street. Witness stated that he saw the petrol waggon a chain from the truck, which was almost parallel with the side of the street, having been pushed off the rails, the nearest part of it being four fefet from the line. The point of impact- was 20 feet from the edge of the street and there was an eight-foot skid mark made by the waggon but no sign of brake skid marks. The waggon had been on its correct side at the time of the impact. There was a clear view of the truck for a good distance. To (Mr Tracy: There were bins of coal on one side of the street. There was no indication of a crossing beyond the lines crossing the street, which were inbedded in the pavement. Constable T. Kennedy stated that he tested the visibility at the scene and seated in a motor-car he found that if a ti;uck had been partly obscured by the "bins, the height would- make it visible from a distance of 32 chains from the south. The coal in the bins was about four feet and the truck was seven feet high.

Constable Speak produced a statement made by defendant, in which it was stated that the waggon was travelling about 22 miles an hour just before the collision. Dependant stated that he was not able to see the truck in time to avoid hitting it. Mr Tracy said the siding was a private one and there was no indication when a truck was about to be moved aci'oss the road. The Magistrate: If a driver was keeping a good lookout he would see the, first movement of the truck past the end of the lines. Mr Tracy said it was absolute madness to push a heavy truck like that across the line of traffic without any signal being giyen. . In the box, defendant said that a motor truck was backed into the vicinity of the bins, getting on to the roadway between him and the bins. He had no idea there was a railway truck beyond. He had been driving up and down that road for three years and that occasion was the first on which he had seen a truck being pushed over the siding line there. He did not think he could have seen the railway truck sooner than he did.

To Senior-Sergeant Cleary: He saw two men on the motor-truck and lie waved to one of them as lie passed. He glanced back. John Gowans stated he was working at the coal depot at the time of the accident loading the motor truck, the front of which would be about 8 feet from the edge of the bitumen. There would be only about 15 to 18 inches of the railway truck visible above the coai in the bins. The motor truck xvas 27 yards from the railway siding line. The Magistrate said that if defendant had been keeping a proper lookout, as it was his duty to do, he should have seen the truck long before he,did.

Defendant was fined £3 with 10s costs.

9 Accident Not Reported. William John Brown was charged with having failed to report an accident in which a person had been injured, and with having no current warrant of fitness in his caiy Senior-Sergeant Cleary stated that a child ran into the- side of the car and was seriously injured. Defendant rendered all assistance. There was no suggestion that defendant was at fault as far as the accident was concerned, as he could not have avoided it. However, he failed to report the accident. The warrant of fitness had expired 10 weeks before. Defendant was fined £l, with 10s costs on the first charge and 10s with 10s, on the second charge. Civil Business. Judgment for plaintiff was given in each of the following cases; —W. B. Gourdie (Mr R. Kennedy) v. A. N. Wilson, £1 with 3s costs; Ashburton Motors (Mr Y. W. Russell) v. G. Phillips, £2 10s -3d, with £1 7s 6d costs; Ashburton Hospital Board (Mr W. H. Woods)v . G. P. Ainsworth, £l3 7s, with £2 15s costs.