DEFECTIVE VEHICLE AMAZED OFFICER

Press, Volume C, Issue 29510, 11 May 1961, Page 10

DEFECTIVE VEHICLE AMAZED OFFICER

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, May 10.

“I was amazed.” Traffic Officer N. Tasker told Mr J. G. Warrington, S.M., in the Dunedin Magistrate’s Court today, commenting on a car he had stopped near Allanton, 15 miles south of Dunedin. The driver, Leslie Victor Nelson, had pleaded guilty by letter to operating a defective vehicle, and having no warrant of fitness.

He was fined £lO on the first charge and £3 on the second.

Traffic Officer Tasker, who stopped the vehicle because it was not showing a warrant of fitness sticker, said the car had no footbrake, no handbrake, no steering wheel, and no floorboards. The officer said Nelson steered the vehicle by means of two bolts welded to the steering column. Door Collapsed

"The running boards were wired to the door handles and when one door was opened, it collapsed,” the officer said. “There were no floorboards, and the driver’s seat was a plank, wired to the chassis. "There were no door

handles inside the car, and the general bodywork was in a poor condition,” Traffic Officer Tasker said. Mr' Warrington: You are being rather conservative, aren’t you? Traffic Officer Tasker: Well, it did run. The traffic officer said the driver had told him he was returning from Dunedin “after effecting some repairs.” He had immediately ordered the car from the road, and supplemented this with a similar order in writing.