"LUCKY TO BE ALIVE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 65, 17 March 1936, Page 12

"LUCKY TO BE ALIVE."

DRIYER OF CAR FINED £2. ■ WESTFIELD CROSSING SMASH. ' An echo of the smash on the Great South Road at the Westfield railway bridge crossing on February 22 was heard in the Otahuhu Magistrate's Court yesterday. Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., was on the Bench. Lionel William James Hayden pleaded not guilty to a charge of negligent and dangerous driving. Sergeant Cahill conducted the prosecution. Alexander Sommerville Young, a shunfer, stated that at; 7 p.m. on the day of the accident he was taking a rake of meat wagons over .the crossing into the freezing works siding. All the usual danger signals were working and he flagged Hayden, who was coming very fast down the incline on to the crossing. He estimated his speed at between 35 and 40 miles per hour. . Samuel Bennett, engine driver, said that in • accordance with hie usual custom he blew the whistle as he came to the crossing, and the "rake" was right across the road when the crash occurred. Constable Leslie Nicliol produced a plan of - the scene of the accident. The Defendant:, I approached the crossing at 30 miles per hour 1 . The Magistrate: But 25 miles per hour is the speed limit there. You are very lucky to be still alive. Hayden told the Court that he had been driving for eight years. The car was not his and he had driven it only from Auckland. When he saw the trucks he applied the' brakes, which failed to act. He endeavoured to swerve the .car through the cattle stop, but struck the kerb and crashed into the trucks. He was convicted and fined £2, plus Court costs and witnesses' expenses.