Officer stops cars in cortege

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32959, 4 July 1972, Page 1

Officer stops cars in cortege

fFrom Our Own Reporter) GREYMOUTH, July 3.

Cars travelling in a Greymouth funeral cortege on Saturday which were not displaying new

registration stickers were stopped by a Ministry of Transport officer. A Greymouth man, Mr J. A. Beban. said yesterday that he would enter an official complaint. He said his was the fifth car in a long cortege when he was waved out with one or two others by a traffic officer.

Mr Beban said he had no quarrel with the traffic regulations.

“I had forgotten to attach my new registration sticker and that was that. What I do question is the time and place of enforcement. A funeral is sacrosanct and this officer's

appalling lack of good taste warrants the strongest possible condemnation.” Mr Beban said an approach by the traffic officer after the funeral at the cemetery gates would have been “less reprehensible.” Traffic Officer I. G. J. Cranefield, acting senior traffic officer at Greymouth, said yesterday that he was the traffic officer concerned and had meant no disrespect by his action; but, he said, the owner had no excuse for not having the sticker displayed.

He said that he stopped 14 cars in 20 minutes, but only two of these were in the funeral cortege. All 14 owners were either carrying the new stickers inside their cars or had them at home, he said. No tickets were issued.