SPEEDING CHARGE DISMISSED

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25679, 16 December 1948, Page 3

SPEEDING CHARGE DISMISSED

MAGISTRATE EXONERATES TAXI-DRIVER CARRIAGE OF MATERNITY PATIENT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, December 15. A taxi carrying an urgent maternity case to hospital should be permitted to exceed the speed limit. This was decided by Mr J. S. Hanna, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Lower Hutt, to-day. He dismissed a charge of exceeding the speed limit against Gerald Reginald Elgar, a taxi driver. Elgar, who pleaded not guilty, was re-? presented by Mr K. G. Gibson, and the prosecutor was Mr N. Gillespie. Mr Gibson contended that under section 37 of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1938, the taxi, had been used as an ambulance on an urgent service, ‘ and was therefore entitled to. exceed the speed limit normally imposed. The case was almost in the nature of a test case, he continued, because it was of vital importance to every taxi-driver, and in fact every motorist, to see whether section 57 formed a complete defence for thia type of charge. For the Hutt County Council, Mr Gillespie said that if speeding were permitted for vehicles other than those engaged on urgent ambulance service—and he did not regard this case as such—then private vehicles could be changed to ambulances and speed on the roads.

The Magistrate said his view was that the taxi was on urgent ambulance service, and that his opinion of section 57 was that any driver answering a call such as this might exceed the speed limit. He said that he would give a written judgment on the case.