STRUCK BY OMNIBUS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 11

STRUCK BY OMNIBUS

Watersider’s Claim Against Corporation

NEGLIGENCE NOT PROVED Special damages of £l3l and , £5OO general damages were claimed by George Ralph Carnley, waterside worker, at the Supreme Court, Wellington, yesterday, defendant being the Wellington City Corporation. Carnley collided with a corporation bus in Newtown on August 31, 1935, and received concussion and other injuries. Mr. Justice Blair presided. Mr. Ik Hardie Boys represented Carnley and Mr. W. E. Leicester the City Corporation. Judgment was given for defendant corporation. Carnley set out that because of his injuries he was in Wellington Public Hospi. tai from August 31 to September 10,1935 : that he was still receiving treatment; that he was uot fit for manual worn and that he bad been seriously impaired in health and in his ability to walk and move. He alleged negligence against the driver. Defendant corporation denied negligence and alleged Carnley was himself wholly responsible for the accident due to his failure to keep a proper look-out. cycling at a speed excessive in the circumstances, and failing to exercise reasonable care for his own safety. It was further set up that if defendant s servant had been negligent in any degree, Carnley was coutributorily negligent. It was also submitted that no proceedings were started within six months after the accident, as was required by section 36i of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1933. Mr. Boys said the accident occurred at 7.30 a.m. when the bus was turning round at the junction of Ridd-'ford and John Streets and Adelaide Road. Carnley was too close to the bus to avoid colliding with it. Carnley told the court he was cycling down Adelaide Road at eight to 10 miles an hour. He was watching for traffic coming out of John Street, when he noticed something coming across his path and he struck it. “That was all I remembered. I woke up in hospital, where a nurse said ‘drink this’,” said Carriley. He received no warning; no horn was sounded. Hugh iMacale gave evidence in support of the corporation's case. He said the bus horn was sounded. He saw Carnley coming at a fast rate with his head.down and his hat over his eyes, and realised, when Carnley was more than 50 feet from the bus, he'would strike it He ha'l seen Carnley repeatedly proceeding down Adelaide Road, at a fast pace.

To Mr. Boys, Macale said he, too, was a corporation employee—in the bus garage. He knew inquiries into the accident were first conducted by the council’s traffic department, and that there was trouble because the matter was not first reported to the police. He first came into the matter when the police came to him for a statement. Robert Henry Brown, bootmaker, said his experience was that cyclists came down Adelaide Road in the mornings as though they “hadn’t a minute to live." Camley’s speed was 20 miles.an hour; that of the bus, walking pace. Edgar Thomas Hayward, th 4 bus driver, said he saw Carnley approaching and considered there was sufficient time for the bus to get to the other side of the road and let the cyclist pass behind it.

Giving judgment hip Honour said he was loath to come to his decision, but even if Carnley on his own figure were travelling at eight miles an hour, it was twice the speed of the bus and gave him ample opportunity of seeing the bus. There was no evidence of negligence in the handling of the, bus.