DANGEROUS DRIVING

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 230, 26 June 1935, Page 14

DANGEROUS DRIVING

Makara Road Accident

MAGISTRATE’S COURT CASE The aftermath of a collision on the ■Makara Road on March 31 last was heard in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning before Air. 13. D. Mosley, -S.AI., when Ronald Gaskin, a milk roundsman, was charged with dangerous driving. _ Represented by Mr. W. P. Rolling’s, he ■pleaded not guilty, and was convicted, being fined £2 and costs, and having ins license endorsed. E G. Somerville, a dentist, described the Makiara Hill Road where he had been driving on the morning of the accident, as winding and dangerous at times. He had been going up a hill in second gear, and Gaskin approached suddenly m & lorry. He said that he thought at the tune an accident could not 'be avoided. Defendant’s car was wobbling, and after the collision he hit the bank by the road, straightened up and went away, leaving witness sitting where he was. Witness had been keeping to his correct side. He sought out Gaskin, who said to him, “You’re a fine sort of chap to be driving a car. We might have gone over the cliff,” alleging excessive speed on his partSimilar evidence was given by a passenger in Somerville’s car. “It appeared to me as if Gaskin were panicky,” he said. Gaskin in evidence said he was on the correct side and about two feet out from the bank. The car was travelling at about 15 or 20 miles an hour, and there was about 19 feet of road surface in which to pass. The back of his lorry did not swing out, but some part of it hit the ■bank. He travelled on in order to pull up at the next bend, but when he did so the other car was out of sight. Walter Gaskin, brother of defendant, and William Henry Jervis, gave evidence for the defence. Mr. Mosley said that it appeared that the lorry had been coming round the corner at an excessive speed, and the driver had put on the brakes to avoid a collision, but the lorry had swung round to cause one. In Hotel After Hours “One of them said he was Clem Dawe,” said a witness giving" evidence, against James Cameron and Leslie White, who were charged with being found on licensed premises at the Royal Oak Hotel after hours at 2.10 a.m. on June 19. Cameron and White, represented by Mr. J. A. Scott, pleaded not guilty, and said that Cameron had gone into the hotel to ring up a friend after 2 a.m., while White, who had no particular desire to enter the hotel, accompanied him. “There is a penny-in-the-slot telephone machine quite handy,” said Mr. Mosley, who fined accused £1 and costs each. Remand Granted Because the magistrate said he had no summary jurisdiction to deal with the case, as information had not been laid until two days ago, a charge against Patrick Joseph O’Connor, aged 36, a labourer, of stealing £2 from Eileen O’Leary at Wanganui on May 26, 1932, was remanded until to-day, ou the request of Detective-Sergeant L. Revell, who said accused had made a statement. Mr. Mosley said that the offence would have to be made an indictable one, but he would accept the statement as a prima facie case. Hard Labour A sentence of 14 days’ hard labour was imposed on Felix Mulligan, aged 44, a labourer, on a third statutory drunkenness charge. He was convicted and discharged for obtaining liquor while under a prohibition order.