INTOXICATED BUS DRIVER

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26985, 10 March 1953, Page 2

INTOXICATED BUS DRIVER

FINE OF £5O IMPOSED (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 9. About 120 cars were held up yesterday on Oriental parade by a bus parked at right angles across the road. Steel Gertie Prentice, aged 25, a joiner and cabinetmaker, pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court today to being intoxicated in charge of the bus, and was fined £5O by Mr M. B. Scully, S.M. His licence was cancelled until June 30 next year. Brian Desmond Williams, aged 20, a driver, who was with Prentice, pleaded guilty to obstructing the police, and was fined £lO. . J A motorist had been forced to brake suddenly when he came on the bus at ateevere bend, said Sub-Inspector Conway. Prentice had threatened both the motorist and passengers in his car. The police arrived and arrested Prentice. It was obvious to them that he was intoxicated, said Sub-Inspector Conway. When a constable went to take the ignition keys, Williams, who was with Prentice, prevented this, not) by violence, but by keeping in between the constable and Prentice. Prentice was examined by a doctor, who said he had obviously consumed liquor, but at the time of the examinwas reasonably fit to drive a car. The time was then 5.30 p.m. Prentice had been arrested at 4.15 p.m.