MOTOR-SPEEDING CASE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 171, 19 April 1928, Page 6

MOTOR-SPEEDING CASE

UNUSUAL FEATURE POLICE EVIDENCE FOR BOTH .SIDES ' ■ • ,f Dominion ■ Special Service. 1 Auckland, April 18. A feature of a case heard in the Mornnsville Magistrate’s Court to-day was that a police inspector and a Hamilton traffic inspector gave evidence for the defence against that given by a police constable and a local traffic inspector for the prosecution. A Hamilton taxi-driver, Alec Hutcheson, was charged with driving at a dangerous speed through Morrinsville borough. t Evidence was given by Mr. Branch, Morrinsville traffic inspector, and Constable Heepes that a trap was set in Morrinsville on the morning of the Te Arc-ha races. A distance of 547 yards was' paced off. The inspector stood wth a stop-watch at one end while Constable Heepes had a watch at the other end, and took a note of the times and the numbers of the cars. It was stated that Hutcheson drove through the trap at a speed which the witnesses described as dancerous Inspector Eccles, officer in charge of the Hamilton police district, who was a passenger in Hutcheson’s car, said that at no time did defendant exceed the sneed limit; he had driven most carefully. Witness considered the tests were wrong. Patrick Courtney, traffic .inspector at Hamilton, described the method -employed bv Branch and Constable Heepes as crude and stupid, and said itwas impossible to g/iuge accurately the speed of cars passing through the trap. . ’ The Magistrate (Mr. R. L. Patterson) held that Hutcheson had travelled at a dangerous speed, and imposed a fine of £1 10s. The Magistrate admitted that ] the trap was a crude one, but said the test was sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes.- .He gave defendant the benefit of five miles an hotir.

Thirtv-one other defendants who were caught in the trap, and who did not appear, were fined varying amounts.