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COLLISION ON HUTT ROAD

Car-Driver Convicted

“SPEED TOO FAST UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES”

Following an accident on the Hutt Road, near Ngahauranga, on the night of August 31 in which two cars were wrecked, ten persons involved and seven injured, Samuel Bird, Wellington, was fined £2/10/-, with costs £2/13/-, by Mr. H. P. Lawry, S.M., at the Magistrate's

Court, Petone, yesterday, for driving in a manner which might have been dangerous. Senior-Sergeant H. C. D. Wade prosecuted. Mr. T. McCarthy appeared for Bird, who pleaded not guilty. Rudyard John Dickens, aged 20, Reserve Bank clerk, said his speed near Ngahauranga and approaching a curve was 35 miles an hour. Bird’s car came from the opposite direction on the incorrect side of the road at a fast speed; he had no time to avoid a collision. The car he was driving was a heavy model and it was forced into the bank by the collision. He estimated Bird’s speed at 50 miles an hour. Both cars were written off as total wrecks. Visibility was poor and it was raining. He had had one drink just before he left town. Mr. McCarthy: Are you quite certain there were only three persons in your car? —“Yes, a young lady, a man and myself, all in the front seat.” There is no doubt you were the driver? —“I was.” Dickens said the three of them were doing to a dance. There was liquor in the car but it did not belong to him. Mr. McCarthy: I will call evidence that one of the occupants of your car was under the influence of liquor—“l don’t think so.” Robert Cecil Guthrie Moore, company

manager, said weather conditions were shocking that night. Bird’s car passed him at up to 45 miles an hour, lie remarked on its speed. It may have been slightly over the centre line of the road. It passed another ear 200 feet on without coming into the left of the road. Then the brakes appeared to be applied and the car skidded across the road. Dickens’s oncoming car seemed to have pulled right over to its left off the bitumen and to have almost stopped. Dickens showed no signs of liquor; ho was the coolest man there. Bird was not the only one whose car skidded that night; his own car did. A woman driver travelling at only 20 miles an hour was turned right round by the application of the brakes.

Brian Stuart Gillespie, Reserve Bank clerk, a passenger in Dickens's car, said Bird’s car approached in the centre of the road and when 15 to 20 yards off bore over toward their car. He had one drink before leaving Wellington. Constable R. A. Morris said Dickens was sober when he saw him at the scene. Car wreckage and blood were spread over two chains of the road. One ear was so badly damaged it could not be shifted. The accident occurred on an almost straight piece of road. John Alfred Henderson, oil company employee, said Bird’s car appeared to swerve to its incorrect side and hit Dickens's car. Witness was doing 30 to 35 miles an hour when Bird passed him. Mr. McCarthy said the case was of some importance, to Bird as all the seven occupants of his car were hurt. Bird left his work just before 8.30 p.m., and by 8.40 p.m. had travelled three and onetenth miles. He passed one or two cars on the Hutt Road, and then pulled back to his correct side. He thought he saw the lights of Dickens's car coining toward him, so he applied his brakes, but unfortunately he went into a skid and hit Dickens's car. It was contended that Bird’s car must have been in the centre of the road.

Bird said that his average speed over the three and one-tenth miles was considerably below 30 m.p.h, Most of the time his speed was 30 m.p.h., but when he passed other ears it was considerably more. He attributed his skid to applying the brakes. Before the accident he had bad a driver's licence for 11 days and several months’ driving experience. He drove some of the distance at 20 m.p.h. If this was so, Bird must have exceeded 40 m.p.h. in some places to make up the average of 30 m.p.h., said Mr. Lawry, This speed was too great for such a night. Walter Hawke's, mechanic, said Bird passed him about 200 yards south of the railway crossing, travelling at 30 miles an hour. When last he saw him Bird was on the correct side of the road. Kennett Elliott McLeod, a front-seat passenger in Bird’s car, said Bird's speed was between 28 and 30 m.p.h. The lights of Dickens's car seemed to come toward them. The brakes must then have been applied as the car skidded. Bird was a careful driver. Arnold William Nixon, another passenger. said Bird’s speed was moderate. He would have noticed had Bird not. been on the correct side of the road. Albert McDowell, another passenger in Bird's car, gave sithilar evidence. The evidence established that Bird was going too fast in the circumstances, said Mr, Lawry. The conditions, caused by misty rain and a wet road, were abnormal. Defendant was going too fast and the car got out of control. The insurance on Bird's car paid for only part of his loss, said Mr. McCarthy. COURT PROCEDURE Magistrate’s Advice To Inspector

In a tenancy case at the Magistrates’ Court, Petone, yesterday, a defendant was represented by an inspector of the Labour Department who bad previously acted for the plaintiff in like proceedings. In yesterday’s case be asked plaintiff if her outgoings were all for rent and if they did not inelude arrears. . Mr. H. P. Lawry, S.M., thereupon interposed that information the inspector had obtained in acting for a person in other proceedings should not be used in the present one. It had really been received by the inspector in a privileged eapa.city. He was not a solicitor, but should observe the same proprieties. The inspector, for instance, had not learned of the arrears from plaintiff in connection with the present case. There was no rule on the question, only what he thought fair. It was one of the difficulties which arose in acting first for one side and then another. WHIPPET HANDICAPS Handicaps for the Petone Whippet Racing Club's meeting to be held at Hutt Park on Saturday are:— Improvers’ Handicap (all scratch).— First heat: Native King, Surprise Item, The Piper, Star Ranger, Nevado, War Trail. Second heat: Red Bosker Bov, ■White Electric Flash, Blue Miss Trafalga, Green Roma Lassie, Yellow Half Note. Second Class Handicap.—Mountain Fern, 14yds.; Super Tax; Silver Dart. I.4yds.; Royal Vale, 14yds.; Where. 13J yds.; Bosker Boy, 14yds. Petone Handicap.—First heat: White Flash, 9yds.; El Kuno, lOjyds.; Warrigal, 10yds.; Black Dust, lljyds. Second heat: Whero, 13Jyds.; Shy, 12jyds.; Pepper Lad, TJyds.; Hall Mark. 13yds. Platt Lightweight Handicap.—Great Bonnie. Rose Bud, 13yds.; Tui Fern. 9} yds.; Mare Mahan, 14yds.; Silver Mine. 131yds.; Marabou, 9Hds. Farewell Handicap.—Tui Fern. 1-1 yds.; Nevado, 14yds.; Surprise Item, 14 yds.; Warrigal, 10yds. Hurdle Race.—Mistress Dixie, 20yds.: Native King, 19yds.; Mountain Fern, 20 yds.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19371216.2.162.2

Bibliographic details

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 70, 16 December 1937, Page 18

Word Count
1,196

COLLISION ON HUTT ROAD Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 70, 16 December 1937, Page 18

COLLISION ON HUTT ROAD Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 70, 16 December 1937, Page 18