MAGISTRATE'S COURT Warning To Truck-Drivers To Secure Loads

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30610, 28 November 1964, Page 28

MAGISTRATE'S COURT Warning To Truck-Drivers To Secure Loads

Truck drivers who were too lazy to secure their loads could expect to lose their licences, said Mr E. A. Lee, S.M, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The Magistrate gave this warning after Sergeant V. F. Townshend told the Court that a boy cyclist required 41 stitches when he was struck by some angle iron which had slipped on the deck of a truck driven by Joseph Henry Williams. Williams (Mr M. J. Glue) pleaded guilty to a charge of having an unsafe load, and was fined £lO, and his driving licence endorsed for two years.

Williams’s truck had been loaded with iron, and he had heard it shift. When he looked back he saw the iron protruding from the truck and the cyclist lying on the road. Mr Glue submitted it was a case of extreme bad luck, and the iron had moved when the truck hit a bump. He asked the Court not. to consider the matter a case for cancellation. It had been announced that drivers who did not secure their loads properly would have their licences suspended, the Magistrate said. “Unless drivers take notice of this, how are we going to stop it?” the Magistrate asked. There had been too many instances of badly secured or unsecured loads. FIGHTING

A fine of £lO was imposed on Anthony Tawhiti, aged 27, when he pleaded guilty to a charge of fighting in a public place on November 26. A £lO fine, in default 12 days’ imprisonment, was also imposed on Steve Tawhiti, aged 22, who appeared on a similar charge. He was also fined £5 on a charge of using obscene language, in default seven days’ imprisonment. He pleaded guilty to both charges. The prosecutor (Sergeant V. F. Townshend) said the two men had been seen fighting in Hereford street. They were cousins, and had explained • they had not seen each other for four years and were fighting to see who was the stronger. TOOK CAR AND TRUCK Pleading guilty to charges of unlawfully taking a car and a truck on November 22, Graham James Ryan, aged 17, unemployed, was convicted and remanded on bail to December 3 for sentence. Sergeant Townshend said Ryan and another youth had taken a £4OO truck from a yard in Addington and later abandoned it in Kaiapoi. The two had then taken a £2BO

car and driven it to Hokitika where they were apprehended. The car was slightly damaged. ASSAULT Pleading guilty to a charge of assaulting an ambulance driver and using obscene language, Neville Gowland, aged 25, was fined £lO on each charge, in default 12 days’ imprisonment on each charge, the terms to be cumulative. Sergeant Townshend said the ambulance had been called to a house in New Brighton at 1.30 a.m. yesterday. The defendant, who had blood on him, climbed into the ambulance beside the driver, whom he later ordered to pull into the side of the road and let him out. When the driver did not do so, defendant punched him and tried to pull the steering wheel from his grasp. He was driven to the police station and later used the language complained of. REMANDED Brian Francis O’Donnell, aged 25, unemployed, was remanded in custody to December 3 on a charge of burgiary of a shop at Methven on December 24. Bail was opposed by the police. Leslie Frederick Vintiner, aged 19, was also remanded to December 3 in custody on a similar charge. Jeffrey Pakau, aged 22, was remanded on ball to December 3 on a charge of using obscene language in Hereford street on November 26. TRAFFIC CASES On other traffic charges brought by the police offenders were dealt with as follows: Failed to give way: James Taylor Stevenson, £10; John Urquhart, £8; Ashley James Kinsman, £10: William Millar, £10; George Kitchener Daw, £8; Maureen Denise Edwards, £6; Martin Muller Elliot, £10; Esther Caroline Gillard, £8; Doris Ivy O'Callaghan, £8; Raymond I George Plumb, £8; Ngakete Shelford, £10; lan George Stark, £8; ' Frederick Teevale, £lO. Careless use of a motor ' vehicle: Gilbert Brian Hardaker, £lO (licence endorsed for two years); Graham James Murray, £lO (licence endorsed for two years); Brian Alan Eves, £4; Murray Reid Fox. £8; Nicola Jane Frances McNeill, £8; Barry Kay, £5: William Alfred Stinton, £5; Stephen John Taylor, £4; Terence Arthur Wooltorton, £lO (disqualified for three months).

No driver's licence: George Frederick Clark Hudson, £2. Failed to give way at pedestrian crossing: Joseph Adrian Fail!, £3. Overtook at pedestrian crossing: David John Herring, £6. Used unlicensed motor vehicle: lan Johnson, £5 (no warrant of fitness, £2): John Arthur Le Brenton. £5 (no warrant of fitness, £2). Opened car door in a manner likely to cause injury: Edward Roland Lindstrom, £5. Permitted use of unlicensed vehicle: Richard Noel Mackay, £5 (no warrant of fitness, £2). (Before Mr K. H. J. Headifen, S.M.) CHARGE DISMISSED On the application of Mr P. G. S. Penlington, a charge of careless use of a motor vehicle on Hudsons road, Greenpark, on October 18, against John Kenneth Tucker, aged 21, a i fitter, was dismissed at the conclusion of the prosecution evidence. Tucker pleaded not guilty. Mr Penlington submitted that the only evidence produced by the prosecution was a statement obtained from the defendant. He said that because an accident had occurred the prosecution assumed that carelessness or negligence was necessarily present. “The mere fact that a defendant concedes he was driving a motor car which turned over is not sufficient to convict him,” he said. FINED £8 To a charge of careless use of a motor vehicle on Johns road on September 25, Terence Richard Butland, aged 20, a workman (Mr M. J. Glue), pleaded not guilty. He was convicted and fined £B. SeniorSergeant G. M. Cleary prosecuted. (Before Mr A. W. Yortt, S.M.) FINED £9 10s Helen Eileen Gleiss, a housewife, pleaded not guilty to failing to yield the right of way at the intersection of Beach road and Bower avenue on June 7. She was convicted and fined £7. On a further charge of not having a driver’s licence, to which she pleaded guilty, she was fined £2 10s. Mr R. J. de Goldl, who appeared for the defendant, said she had been deceived by the probably excessive speed of the car with which her van collided. CONVICTED AND DISCHARGED Reginald John Sagar, aged 18, a fitter and turner (Mr G. R. Lascelles), pleaded not guilty to failing to yield the right of way at the intersection of Ferry road and Fitzgerald avenue on October 18. He was convicted and discharged. The Magistrate said there was some doubt about whether the light on the bicycle which the defendant struck was operating. There had clearly been a failure to give way to the right, but he did not think it was a case where a penalty should be entered.