FAST DRIVE TO PICTON

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22305, 20 January 1938, Page 4

FAST DRIVE TO PICTON

MOTORIST FINED £lO

POLICE VERSION OF INCIDENTS

IN JOURNEY

(PEXSS ASSOCIATION TELEOEAIf.)

BLENHEIM. January 19.

Rex Ashby Rudkin, of Christchurch, a salesman, was fined £lO, ordered to pay witnesses’ expenses amounting to £4 6s, and to produce his licence for endorsement by Mr T. E. Maunsell, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court today, when he was convicted of driving at a dangerous speed on the main highway near Blenheim. Senior-Sergeant Smyth said that the evidence available indicated that the defendant travelled at an excessive speed in a journey from Christchurch to Picton. He was reported for speeding through Kaikoura and had a collision with a motor-lorry before reaching Blenheim, but did not stop. Then he allegedly picked up a horse on th2 bonnet of his car and carried it for more than 100 yards, resulting in injuries to the horse, necessitating its destruction. Even then he covered some 25 miles in half an hour. Explaining the accident in a letter to the Court, the defendant said that he was relying on “the courtesy of the road,” expecting the car descending a hill to give way- to his car, which was ascending. The Magistrate declined, to take this into account, remarking that he had never heard a convincing explanation of the theory. It appeared to be a most serious case. Whether a car was going uphill or down it must be driven with reasonable care.