Magistrate’s Court Motorists Warned About Speed At Intersections

Press, Volume C, Issue 29635, 4 October 1961, Page 18

Magistrate’s Court Motorists Warned About Speed At Intersections

A warning to motorists that cancellation or suspension of driving licences would •be imposed for offences in which it was proved that a driver’s speed across an intersection was too great for him to stop before reaching the “impact area,” was given by Mr E. S J. Crutchley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The warning was given after two motorists had been convicted of driving without due care and attention in Sherborne street, at its intersection with Purchas street, one on June 30 and the other on July 14. The prosecutions were brought by the Christchurch City Council. The motorists were checked by microwave equipment at the intersection at more than 30 miles an hour, it was submitted, on the basis of graphs compiled by the traffic department showing drivers* reaction times and braking distances at varying speeds, that the motorists could not have stopped had they encountered traffic on their right before reaching the impact area of the intersection.

One motorist, Frederick narrower Russell Priest, aged 58, a maintenance manager, was fined £3 for driving without due care tnd attention across the intersection on June 30. He pleaded guilty. Evidence was given that the graphj showed that Priest, who was checked at 34J miles an hour, would have taken at least 78ft to stop. Mr G. T. Mahon, for Priset, submitted that it was an incorrect use of the traffic authority’s discretion in laying a charge of driving without due care, where the offence was clearly one of exceeding the speed limit. Priest had been driving for 42 years, and had a clean record, he said. The Magistrate said that on his own admission Priest’s mind was occupied on another matter.

The second motorist, Patrick Joseph Hennessy, a milk vendor, was fined £7 10s on a charge of driving without due care.

It was submitted that at Hennessy’s speed across the intersection, 35J miles an hour,' the shortest distince in which he could have stopped was 81ft. Hennessy said he slowed to about 27 miles an hour just before the intersection. •

The Magistrate said that the evidence of speed alone was sufficient to justify conviction on a charge of driving without due care. If a driver was unable to stop he could kill or maim persons, or cause serious damage Motorists used to driving modem cars got lulled into a 1 false sense of security at this speed. WILFUL DAMAGE

After being seen shadow boxing and talking to himself at the intersection of Cashel and High streets at 130 p.tn on October 2. John Henry Burrowes put his fist through a pane of glass in a public telephone booth, said Sergeant V. F. Townshend. Burrowes, aged 39, a workman, pleaded guilty to a charge of wilfully damaging the booth, and was fined £3 The Magistrate warned Burrowes against further shadow boxing in the city. REMANDED Bruce Anthony Briggs, aged 20. a farm hand, was remanded 'in custody to October 9 on a charge of breaking and entering the Sefton Post Office on the night of October 1 with intent to commit theft. TRAFFIC CASES

On traffic charges brought by the Christchurch City

Council offenders were dealt with as follows: Exceeding 30 miles an hour: Peter John Cordner, £2; Stanley Aubry Fogg, £4; James Martin Jackson, £2; James Malcolm McMillan, £5; William R. Woodham, £4; Winston Evan Bailey, £3; Frederick Edward Browne, £3; Harry Victor Cox, £3; Maurice Arthur Cumming, £2 (failing to carry warrant of fitness, £1): James Evan Duncan, £2; Colin Arthur Rex Edlin, £2; Kenneth James Fahey, £2; Harry John Gopperyh, £3; Alexander Hastie, £3; Gilbert Elsberry Hickin, £2; Peter Ernest Keen, £2; Colin Lawrence Kennedy, £2; Roderick L. V. McDonald, £2; Robin Edward Muxlow, £3 10s; William Joseph Peoples, £4; John Francis Qnigley, £2; Olga van Rossmalen, £2; Peter Max SaintMerat, £2: Robert James Weaver, £3 10s; Brenda Weston, £3; Leslie James Whittaker, £5; Daniel Wilson, £3. Failing to stop at compulsory sign: lan Donald Arnott, £1; Kelvin Frederick Goddard, £2; William Edward Morgan, £2; Barry Graham Purver, £3. Riding on footpath: Peter James Bellamy, £2. Supplying false information: Phillip George Collis, £3 (towing vehicle with power-cycle, £2; no driving licence, £3).

Failing to give way at give-way sign: William Alexander Gregg, £5; Alexander Gordon Leeden, £5; Nancy Eileen Rae, £5; James Blair Combe. £4.

No driving licence: Anthony Robert Joyce, £3 (carrying passenger on powercycle, £2). Failing to affix registration plate in prescribed manner: Gregory John Lawn, £2 (insufficient lights, £2). Failing to carry warrant of fitness: Barry James Robin (two charges) £4 on each; Cyril James Ryan, £4.

Failing to give way: Harrie James Valentine, £5. CHARGE DISMISSED A charge against Philip Thomas Whyte, a soldier, of retaining a driver’s licence to which extraneous words had been added was dismissed.

Whyte pleaded not guilty and was represented by Mr B. J. Drake.

Evidence was given for the prosecution that Whyte had found a driver’s licence belonging to another soldier when he was cleaning out a hut at Burnham Military Camp in October, 1960. He had erased the name and had written in his own. He had also altered the expiry date ana extended the licence to drive heavy vehicles. On September 15, 1961, the date of the charge, the licence was not a licence because it had expired, said the Magistrate. It was doubtful if it came under the meaning of the words under which the charge was laid. There was no suggestion that any attempt had been made to use the licence. CIVIL CASES (Before Mr E. A. Lee, S.M.I JUDGMENT SUMMONSES The following orders were made on judgment summonses:—

R. E. Williams, trading as Williams and Sons, to pay R. J. and C. A. Buxton. £B7 6s, in default 68 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £2 a week is paid; B. J. Jarman, labourer, to pay C. K. Patel £49 12s, in default 50 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £2 a week is paid; K. Randall, married woman, to pay Gloucester Motors, Ltd, £ll 4s lid, ,in default 12 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 10s a week is paid; Dorothy Irene Crook, married to

pay Turners, Ltd., £2B 6s 7d, in default 29 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while 10s a week is paid; G. Seaward, labourer, to pay George Baxter £l6, in default 17 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; R. A. Kennington, nurseryman, to pay S. Carrigan £ll 10s, in default 12 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; J. R, Jordan, married woman, to pay Dillons the Kowhai Florists, Ltd., £3 Is, in default four days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; W. McCrone, worker, to pay Calder Mackay and Company, Ltd., £42 15s 4d, in default 44 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while' £1 a week is paid; F. M. Brown, spinster, to pay Drapery and General Importing Company, Ltd., £lO Is lid, in default 11 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; A. T. Vincent to pay Ford and Spice, Ltd., £3 4s 4d, in default four days’ imprisonment; N. Nicholls, married woman, to pay Charles Begg and Company. Ltd., £95 ss, in default 90 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; R. D. Shaw, worker, to pay Cyclone Fence and Gate Company, Ltd., £l4 12s 9d, in default 15 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; W. Compton, married woman, to pay W. J. M. Bunt £2 12s 6d, in default three days’ imprisonment; P. Koziarski, butcher, to pay Winstone Blackburne Smith £lO 7s 3d, in default 11 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week Is paid; T. T. Mokomoko, freezing worker, to pay A. R. Humphrey £67, in default 70 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £4 a week is paid; Eric Gordon Geddes, labourer, to pay Harrisville Building 'Company, Ltd., £25 5s lOd, in default 26 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; Clarence O. Ryder, labourer, to pay Randolph Coal and Wood Supply £2 10s, in default three days’ imprisonment; W. D. Coulston, worker, to pay T. Armstrong ' and Company, Ltd., £2B 3s 4d, in default 30 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; J. Hewson, worker, to pay Beath and Company, Ltd., £l3 5s 9d, in default 14 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; R. A. Kennington, landscape contractor, to pay Use National Insurance Company of New Zealand, Ltd., £lO 4s 3d, in default 11 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid; R. A. Kennington to pay R. F. Henderson £27 15s 2d, in default 29 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a w’eek is paid; S. J. Allott to pay Brian Hickey £4O 13s 6d, in default 42 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £2 10s a week is paid; Keith McDonald, labourer, to pay Otago Road Services, Ltd., £lB 18s, in default 19 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £2 a week is paid; A. West, bus driver, to pay W. George and Sons, Ltd., £8 19s 6d, in default 10 days’ imprisonment, warrant suspended while £1 a week is paid.

POSSESSION ORDER Ronald Bertram Ralph Cole, galvanises, was ordered to give up possession of a property at the comer of Gebbie’s Pass road and the Akaroa main highway, Motukarara. to ■ Hilda Harriett Ellis, and to pay arrears of rent and costs amounting to £3O 12s.

Trainer Chooem— Canadair, Limited’s CL-41 turbo-jet has been chosen for basic jet training by the R.C.AJ. This first firm sale of the CL-41. a completely Canadian-made aircraft, is valued at approximately £8 million.—(Ottawa.)