OFF-SIDE RULE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 49, 27 February 1935, Page 8

OFF-SIDE RULE.

MOTORISTS WARNED.

CAUSES MANY ACCIDENTS

MAGISTRATE'S COMMENT

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

GISBORNE, this day.

"More accidents are caused through motorists reiying on the ofl'side rule at intersections than by any other cause," said Mr. E. Walton, S.M., at the Gisborne Magistrate's Court during the hearing of a police prosecution of a driver who had collided with a bus.

"It is a matter of law that a driver is not entitled to rely on the offside rule," he added. "It is only a rule for the guidance of motorists, and time and again it has been held by the Supreme Court that the rule does not determine who has been negligent."

In the ease before the Court, said Mr. Walton, the driver of the car bad realised when 12ft from the point of impact that the driver of the bus was not going to observe the offside rule. He had- continued on his course, assuming that the bus was going to stop, but he had had no right to assume that. It was his duty to see that be approached the intersection in such a manner as to be able to stop if the bus did not do so, and if he were unable to stop he was guilty of negligence.

"You are not entitled to drive over an intersection at 20 miles per hour, thinking the other man is going- to stop. It is a popular idea, but it is wrong. It is not right according to law and it is not common sense. It is the most frequent single cause of collision," the magistrate concluded.