COUNSEL REBUKED

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 71, 17 December 1937, Page 6

COUNSEL REBUKED

Magistrate’s Comment In Collision Case MOTORIST FINED £5 Following a collision on the main road near Taitn on the night of August 31. Archie William Blanford, harbour board employee, waw fined £5, with costs £~ 8/-, by Mr. H. P. Lawry, S.M., at the Magistrates’ Court, Lower Hutt, yesterday. During the hearing Mr. Lawry reprimanded Mr. J. A. Scott, Wellington. counsel for Blanford. Sergeant J. M. McHolm prosecuted. Albert George Whiteman, farmer, Akatarawa, said Blanford s car approached him at more than average speed, swerved as it was going into a right-of-way, and charged at him on its incorrect side of the road. The owner of the other car was not to be found by him after the accident. He would not say Blanford was exceeding the speed limit: his own speed was 25 miles an hour. Blanford’s car caught alight. Evelyn Jean Whiteman corroborated her father’s evidence as to how the accident occurred. Afterward she saw Blanford endeavouring to put out the fire in his car. Her mother approached Blanford and told him he was drunk, to which he replied. “I know. lady. I know.’’ Edgar Herbert Ernest Carruthers, motor-body builder. Trentham, a passenger in Whiteman’s car. said he was told after the accident that Blanford had gone up the road and that there was a woman passenger in Blanford’s car who was bleeding. Blanford was not very sociable, he was waving his hands about and did not seem in his right mind. Cross-examined by Mr. Scott, Carruthers said he was sitting in the rear seat with Miss Whiteman but was not speaking to her just before the accident; they had not much to talk about.

Mr. Scott: Are you keeping company with Miss Whiteman? Carruthers: That’s a personal question. Sergeant McHolm : There's no harm in it if you are. Mr. Lawry: Even if he is. Mr. Scott, what difference does it make? Blanford was annoyed, as anyone would be after such a collision, said Carruthers.

Mr. Scott: That is what T was coming to when his Worship interrupted. Mr. Lnwry: I will not have that, Mr. Scott. You have been at the Bar long enough to know you must not make observations. especially to a witness, on what a magistrate says. Mr. .Scott, to Carruthers: How-old are you —“Twenty.” Mr. Scott: Butjyou sit in judgment, on a man older than yourself and say he did not seem in his right mind. Mr. Lawry: I do not think you have a right to say that. The witness! is here to tell the court what he knows, not to be reprimanded by you. He found a half-empty bottle of here and two full bottles in the back of Blanford’s car, said Constable Griffith. Ho could not find Blanford, who had left before his arrival. Defendant’s Evidence. Blanford said he had been at Blair Logie, near Masterton. since the Friday. While he was returning at a moderate speed two cars, one of which had bright lights, came toward him, one boring in to his side. This car must have gone on the footpath to pass him ; he did not see it again. He swerved to avoid it and

the collision occurred. He had a glass of beer witli his lunch that day, but no other liquor. He was 15 minutes at the scene of the collision before leaving. When Mrs. IVhiteman accused him ot being drunk he denied it and said he had just driven from Masterton. Mre. Whiteman was very excited. Ilin passenger, Mre. Tidswell, was hurt, and he was advised to have her attended to. He took her in a taxi to the house of a friend, Mrs. Chalmers. Belmont, who was a nurse. He telephoned the police but could not get them. The taxi-driver, McVeay, said he would try and get through. It seemed that whoever answered asked if anyone were hurt, and on being told there was not, said there was no need to report the accident. Cross-examined by Sergeant McHolm, Blanford admitted that in his statement he set out that he telephoned the police. The two bottles of beer came from Blair, Logie, where he had stayed at an hotel. The half-bottle had been in the car since the Friday night. Sergeant McHolm: There was also a crayfish. How long wai? that there. - “It"was put there just before we returned from Blair Logie.” , i „ Sergeant McHolm: You don t Y el }J* out your car often if you leave haltbottles of beer in it. Sergeant McHolm said no telephone message was received of the accident other than from Whiteman’s passenger, Carruthers. , , Mr. Lawry remarked that JMrs. J-ids* well had been injured sufficiently for Blandford to take her away, yet, according to his own statement, he . told the police no one was hurt. Even if the. injury were only a bruise or scratch the accident must be reported. , Mrs. Avis Tidswell, .80 Taranaki Street, said she went to Biair Logie with Blandford on the Friday and returned with him in hie car on the Sunday. He boarded with her. She saw him all day Sunday, and all the liquor he had was a glass of beer with his lunch. 'Hie two bottles of beer found in the car had been given to her and the partly consumed bottle had been in the car since Friday. After the collision Mrs. Whiteman was waving her hands about and saying Blanford was drunk. She told Mre. AVhiteman he was not. She was alongside when the taxi-driver, McVeay, rang the police. Mr. Lawry said he could not accept the suggestion that the lights of M hiteman’s car caused the accident. there was some conflict of evidence and tae police case was a strong one. In view of Blanford’s unreliable statement to the police he could not accept his evidence now. He had considered suspending his licence for a fortnight or a month, but in view of Blanford’s former unblemished record he would not do so.