AN INTERESTING POINT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 53, 4 March 1925, Page 8

AN INTERESTING POINT.

FOR DRIVERS WHO LEND CARS. CHARGE OF SPEEDING DISMISSED. Last week when a motorist was before the Police Court on a charge of driving his car in the Borough of Takapuna at a speed in excess of 20 miles per hour he intimated that he wished to defend the case as he 'was not the driver of the car.

The magistrate, Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., then reserved his decision. Today, in giving judgment, Mr. Poynton said that' it had been proved that defendant's car was driven at a pace exceeding that allowed by the by-law, but there was no evidence that defendant was the driver, or was in the< car at the time. The question was whether the proof of the number of the speeding car shifted the onus on to defendant of proving that the car was not then driven by him. The by-law did not place the responsibility on the owner of the car, but on the driver. It said: "No person shall drive a motor, etc." Owners sometimes lend their cars to friends, and I think some evidence of identification of the driver is necessary before he is compelled to reply to the charge, said fhe magistrate. The charge would be dismissed.