Fined £20 For Failing To Stop After Accident

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30312, 12 December 1963, Page 12

Fined £20 For Failing To Stop After Accident

Arthur Edward Barton, a manufacturer, of Tuam street, was fined £2O by Mr E. A. Lee, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court ait Akaroa on a charge of failing to stop after an accident to ascertain if anyone had been injured. On a charge of careless driving, he was fined £lO. The Magistrate ordered that his licence be endorsed with the convictions for three years. Barton (Mr N. D. Thomson) pleaded not guilty to both charges. Prosecuting, Sergeant D. Read called Darryn Travis Rutherford, who said that on November 15 after he had crossed the narrow bridge on the State highway at Takamatua, a car had swerved towards him and “sideswiped” his car. Rutherford said he stopped, turned off his lights, and started to walk back to the other car. He thought he saw two persons get out of it. They re-entered the car, and drove off. Constable J. E. Rudhall, of Akaroa, said he stopped Barton in Akaroa the following morning. He admitted that his car had been involved in an accident the previous night Barton’s car

was damaged along its righthand side. Constable Rudhall read a statement from Barton, in which he said he was momentarily dazzled by a car’s lights beyond the Takamatua bridge. He slowed, and then realised that the car was on the bridge. To avoid a collision, he tried to steer between the car and the bridge. He said in his statement that he saw the other car carry on to Akaroa. He was going to report the accident in the morning, believing he had 24 hours in which to do so. In evidence, Barton said Rutherford was driving faster than he expected. If Rutherford had been Bin to lOin over to his side of the bridge, there would not have been a collision. He had to veer to his right as the bridge was offset from the centre line of the highway. It was evident, said the Magistrate, that Barton had been careless in approaching a narrow bridge, at a time when another car was actually on it. It was no excuse for Barton to say he had misjudged the speed of the other vehicle. Barton had not performed his duty to see that the otlur car had not run off the road. If he had walked back, he would have found it by the side of the road.

“Failing to stop after an accident is a serious offence,” he said. ‘Too many people are left lying on the roads, some dying, while the other driver makes off. It would normally justify the suspension of Barton’s but in view of the fact that he runs a one-man business, and has family responsibilities, I will not do that.”

Ernest Charles Wilson, of Akaroa, was convicted and

fined £5 on a charge of driving carelessly. Evidence was given that he had swung wide on an Akaroa corner, and collided with another ear.

Russell Alexander Sinclair was fined £1 on a charge of having no warrant of fitness for a motor-cycle.

Civil Cases The Magistrate made orders as follows on judgment summonses:—Daniel St. John Douglas was ordered to pay Reid and Gray, Ltd., £5l forthwith, in default 53 days’ gaol, issue of file warrant to be suspended so long as £4 a week is paid. K. J. Dell was ordered to pay Canterbury Tyre Agency £49 Ils 3d forthwith, in default 50 days’ gaol, issue of the warrant to be suspended so long as

£4 a week is paid. R. A. Foote was ordered to pay Stills, Ltd., £22 10s lOd forthwith, in default 23 days’ gaol, issue of the warrant to be suspended so long as £2 a week is paiid.