Supreme Court CONVICTION UPHELD

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31113, 16 July 1966, Page 20

Supreme Court CONVICTION UPHELD

Bealey Avenue Speeding : A motorist who drove along I Bealey avenue at 40-45 miles !an hour in the early hours of a Saturday morning had [created a danger, Mr Justice Wilson ruled in the Supreme Court yesterday. His Honour dismissed an appeal by Rodney Owen Shuter. a weaver (Mr D. H. Hicks) against conviction for driving at a speed which might have been dangerous, and ordered costs against him. In continuing up Packe street. St. Albans, at 60 miles an hour, it appeared that Shuter had been trying to escape traffic officers, said his Honour, thus creating a substantial danger. Shuter. through Mr Hicks, claimed that the evidence against him was insufficient to justify a conviction for driving at a potentially dangerous speed. A speed of up to 45 miles an hour in Bealey avenue, having regard to the absence of other traffic at 12.30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, was a border line case of possible danger, submitted Mr Hicks. As to the speed in Packe street, that was but an estimate made by traffic officers overtaking Shuter in a patrol car, and there was room for doubt. Mr J. G. Leggat, for the Christchurch City Council traffic department, submitted that a speed of 4045 miles an hour in Bealey avenue was certainly an actual or potential danger—and it was no argument to say there was no other traffic about. His Honour said that Shuter had passed two main streets, Manchester and Madras streets, and the speed at which he had crossed those intersections constituted danger.