Magistrate’s Court Counsel Blumes High Hedge For Fatal Accident

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 25

Magistrate’s Court Counsel Blumes High Hedge For Fatal Accident

A submission that the cause of an accident at the mteraection of Sparks and Hendersons roads was the fa;iure of the local body to remove or lower a hedge and to erect warning signs on Hendersons road was made by Mr R. A. Young in the Court yesterday. Mr Young appeared for Bruce David Sutherland. • ged 18, a clerk, charged with causing the death of J oseph Skates by carelessly using a motor vehicle on June 16, Sutherland pleaded not guilty. The Magistrate, Mr E. A. Lee, SM., reserved his decision until Monday after the evidence had been heard. The charge arose from an accident about 4.20 p.m. Skates was a passenger in a car driven by his son away from the city on Sparks road. Sutherland was driving a car in an easterly direction on Hendersons road. Harold James Biick, an electrical storeman, said he ■was 30 yards from the intersection of Sparks and Hendersons roads when the accident occurred. He had nearly stopped because he saw a car travelling on Hendersons road at an apparently fast speed. He also saw a car approaching on Sparks road and he slowed because he thought something was going to happen. The car on Hendersons road appeared to be travelling at between 40 and 50 miles an hour and the speed did not seem to decrease as Sparks road was approached, said the witness. A collision occurred and the doors on the Skates’s car disintegrated and two persons were ejected and they landed about 10 to 15 feet from the car. The cars were pushed across the road and they came to rest locked together, the witness said. Robert William Randle, a process worker, agreed with Mr Young that the intersection was practically a blind one because of a hedge and that Sparks road could not be seen until a driver was practically on it. He thought Sutherland was travelling about 35 miles an hour. There were no signs of any kind on Hendersons road near Sparks road, said Constable R. W. Kerr. There was a sign on Sparks road indicating that there was an intersection ahead. The witness agreed with Mr Young that the intersection would be difficult to see from Hendersons road. Frederick Allan Skates, the driver, said he looked to the right when approaching the intersection of Hendersons road but a high gorse hedge prevented him getting a good view. He said he saw a grey blur and could not do anything about it and a collision occurred. Mr Young said the local body should have ensured that the high hedge that effectively blocked the view was either removed or its height. reduced, and signs should have been erected on Hendersons road to warn road users of the existence of an intersection.

Mr Young also submitted that a primary rule of the road was the observance of the right hand rule, and Skates should have approached the intersection so as to be able to stop short of it. A charge against Frederick Allan Skates (Mr J. G. Leggat), of carelessly using a motor vehicle causing death on June 16. was adjourned for one week. DEPORTED An order was made that Malcolm Francis James Jacobs, aged 34, be kept in custody and returned to Australia when he appeared on a charge of conspiring with a person to kill sheep with intent to steal their skins on or about August. 1962. at Langlo Crossing. Queensland. TRAFFIC CASES In charges brought by the Transport Department of hav. ing no warrants of fitness. Alan Falconer, George Rexley Hart, and Bevan Matthews were each fined £l. On a similar charge Norman Patrick Reid was fined £3. Walter Joseph Boddington was fined £3 for a parking offence. (Before Mr K. H. J. Headifen. S.M.) FINED £3O Fines totalling £3O and disqualification of his driver's licence for a total of 18 months was imposed on Garth Stuart Hegan 'Mr G. R. Lascelles* when he appeared on three charges. Hegan pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to stop after an accident, on which he was fined £lO, and was disqualified from holding a driver’s licence for six months. He pleaded guilty to a charge of driving in a dangerous manner, and was fined £l5. and disqualified from holding a driving licence for one year. On a charge of failing to ascertain if any person was injured after an accident to which he also pleaded guilty, Hesan was fined £5The Court ordered that the year’s disqualification should start immediately and the six months’ period of disqualification should start when the year expired. Detective-Sergeant A G. I. Rodgers said the incident leading to the charges occurred in Riccarton road at 12 30 a m. on October 12. Hegan was driving east along Riccarton road when he hit the rear of another car travelling in the same direction. The car he hit was forced across the road and hit a parked car. BURGLARY Details of the theft of £33 from the sergeants’ mess at the Royal New Zealand Air Force station. Hobsonville, were outlined by SeniorSergeant G. M. Cleary when

Francis Aonui Kereopa, aged 23, a regular soldier, pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary at the station on August 3. Kereopa was convicted and remanded on bail, and in the care of the R.N.Z.A.F., to which he was attached, to November 22. Senior-Sergeant deary said that at 1 a.m. the mess was checked by a watchman and found to be in order. When checked at 4.45 a m. the door to the mess had been damaged and £33 had been stolen from a till. Damage to the door amounted to about £5. The defendant had said he was under the influence of liquor at the time of the offence. UNLAWFULLY TOOK CAR Pleading guilty to a Oharge of unlawfully taking a £6OO car on November 6, Richard David Steven Heta, aged 21, a carpenters’ labourer, was convicted and remanded on bail to November 22. Senior’Sergeant Cleary said the car had been left unlocked and with the keys in the ignition outside the owner’s house in Waltham road. WILFUL DAMAGE Norma Marion Waterman, aged 22. was fined £6 and was ordered to make restitution of £ 1 10b when she pleaded guilty to a charge of wilful damage of two blankets, the property of the New Zealand Police Department, on October 15. Senior-Sergeant Cleary said Waterman had been arrested for drunkenness, .and when placed in the cells had torn strips off two blankets valued at £1 10s. OVERTURNED CONCRETE TRUCK A charge of carelessly using a motor truck in Rossall street on September 11 against Gordon Chester Megson, a driver (Mr P. G. S. Penlington) was dismissed. He pleaded not guilty. Janice Isobel Anderson, a journalist, said she was travelling behind the truck, a ready-mixed concrete carrier, at the time. It was travelling between 20 and 30 miles an hour. As it rounded the corner she saw the left rear wheel of the truck lift off the ground, and when she turned the comer from Rossall street into Rhodes street she saw the truck had capsized. The defence was based on the contents of the bowl, Mr Penlington said. The bowl contained six tons of an especially dry and tacky mix of concrete, but Megson did not know a stiff mix had been loaded. The bowl turned anticlockwise, as seen from the rear, and because of the stiffness of the mix the concrete was carried high up the righthand side of the bowl. This also happened as the vehicle took the left-hand corner, upsetting the centre of gravity of the vehicle. Megson gave evidence along these lines. He felt something move at the rear of the truck as he took the corner, he said. “I am not satisfied the question of speed has been established.” said the Magistrate. He said he was satisfied something had gone wrong at the rear of the truck .and he was not prepared to hold that defendant

had made up the story on the spur of the moment. CARELESS USE OF CAR A plea of not guilty was entered by Anthony Michael Knowles (Mr P. G. S. Penlington) when he appeared on a charge of careless use of a car in Moorhouse avenue on September 26. He was convicted and fined £5. • Detective-Sergeant Rodgers said the incident occurred at 4.45 p.m. when the defendant was backing a car out of an alley on to Moorhouse avenue. It came into collision with a cyclist riding along Moorhouse avenue. OTHER TRAFFIC OFFENCES The following were dealt within other traffic offence prosecutions brought by the police:— Failed to give way to the right: Norman Earl Boyce, £4: Edward James Jessett, £5: William Thomas Hector Harris. £4; John Vemel, £4; Stewart Gordon Brown, £5; Geoffrey Charles Duff. £5; Edward Franklin Fairbairn. £3: James Michael O'Toole. £5. No front light on cycle: Christopher Robin Slattery. £1 (no red lamp at rear, £1). Careless use of motorvehicle: Mark Everest England, £4; Colin James Eastabrook, £4; Anne McVicar Williams, £5. Failed to give way at giveway sign: Joseph Gilbert nton, £5. No driver’s licence: Donald Bruce McLaughlin, £8 (failure to give way to the right, £6). Failed to comply with traffic lights: Maurice James Gordon, £7; Neville James Barton, £4 (exceeding 30 m.p.h., £3l. No warrant of fitness: Barry Houghton, £1; Basil Heaton Wilkinson. £2. REMANDED John Hern Kerrigan, aged 39 (Mr G. S. Brockett), was remanded on bail to November 18 on a charge of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs in Cranford street on November 14. (Before Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, S.M.) FINED £7 Dorothy Helen Sullivan, a housewife, was fined £7 on a charge of careless driving on Cashmere road on August 18. She pleaded guilty. Sergeant V. F. Townshend said the defendant was driving south along Cashmere road when she struck a parked car. Both vehicles were extensively damaged and a passenger in her vehicle suffered a broken arm. CARELESS DRIVING Raymond Bruce Foord, aged 24, a tanner, was fined £3 on a charge of careless driving on October 1. He pleaded not guilty and was represented by Mr L. H. Moore. The charge arose out of a collision between a car driven by Foord and a power-cycle ridden bv Edwin Shepperd at the comer of Dunarnan street and Rowcliffe crescent at about 5.13 pj.m. Foord said he had to swing out to avoid a girl cyclist. CHARGE DISMISSED A charge against Michael Francis Everest, aged 16, an apprentice bricklayer, of proceeding from a compulsory stop sign when the way was not clear was dismissed. He pleaded not guilty and was reB resented by Mr R. L. Kerr, verest was ordered to pay costs on a charge of having no warrant of fitness. The charges arose out of a minor collision about 6.25 p.m. on August 9 at the corner of Springs road and the Main South road. (Before Mr A. P. Blair, S.M.) YOUTH CONVICTED Don Creighton Grindley, aged 16 a labourer (Mr W. A. Wilson) was fined £l2 and his driver’s licence cancelled for 18 months, when he was convicted on a charge) of carelessly using a motor-vehicle in Aidwins road on September 22. He pleaded not guilty. On a charge of having no driver’s licence on the same date, to which he pleaded guilty, he was convicted and discharged.