HEAVY FINE

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21116, 17 March 1934, Page 6

HEAVY FINE

* RECKLESS DRIVING OF TAXI FAILURE TO STOP AFTER AN ACCIDENT "Fortunately we do not often get cases as serious as this in Christchurch," remarked Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, when fining Albert Ernest Eden, a taxi driver, £lO and costs for reckless driving and £2 and costs for failing to stop after an accident. The c'el'endant, for whom Mr T. K. Papprill appeared, pleaded guilty to both charges. Senior-Sergeant J. Fox said that at about 11.5 p.m. on February 23 defendant drove his car along Hereford street at a speed of about 35 miles an hour. Near the Shades Hotel he swerved in and hit a standing motorcar. He did not stop, but increased his speed, turning into Oxford terrace and continuing along on his wrong side. One of the occupants of the standing car took the defendant's number. One ot the running boards of defendant's car was splintered and the other car also was damaged. At about 2 o'clock on the following morning Sergeants L. T. Moore and T. Wolfendale went to defendant's home and found him in bed. He appeared to have been drinking but was not drunk. He denied that he had been concerned in an accident, but said he remembered feeling a slight bump which he did not think was worth stopping for. Mr Papprill, for the defendant, said that the accident occurred when Eden bent down to find a rag with which to wipe a fogged windscreen. He had two passengers in the taxi, and they told him not to stop as they were in a hurry. The magistrate remarked that it was incumbent upon taxi drivers to be even more careful than the average motorist.