FINED FOR SPEEDING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 252, 24 October 1934, Page 12

FINED FOR SPEEDING.

AUCKLAND RACING DRIVER. "MOTORISTS ARE SELFISH." A racing motor driver, Reuben A. Dexter, of Auckland, was fined £10 and costs 011 a charge of speeding, before Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M., in the Otahuliu Magistrate's Court yesterday. Mr. Fred Jones, Manukau County Council traffic inspector, prosecuted. In his evidence Mr. Jones said lie was on the Panmure-Howick highway about 9.4.5 a.m. 011 Sunday, September 10. He noticed defendant driving towards Howick at a speed of about 5.5 miles an hour. Defendant later returned and witness followed him. "Although my engine had been recently overhauled and I got up to 70 miles an hour, I had to give up the chase," witness added. "Defendant's car, a racing model, streaked away from me." Defendant, he said, did not appear to slacken appreciably in negotiating bends in the road, and his engine roared and back-fired all the way. Witness estimated defendant's speed at the bends at 7;5 miles an hour, and up to 90 miles an hour in other parts. When seen later, defendant admitted he was out to tune up the car.

Defendant, in a letter which was read, said his accelerator had jammed, and his only way of stopping the cai was by switching it off. The inspector said lie thought it would be almost impossible to switch a car off when travelling at such high speed. A driver would need both hands on the steering wheel all the time. He admitted defendant had appeared to be driving very skilfully. "Motorists are selfish; that is their crying sin," said Mr. Levien. Defendant had been 100 per cent selfish, and such speed on the highways could not be tolerated. He could not see his way, said the magistrate, to make the penalty less than £10.