UNUSUAL ACCIDENT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 5, 6 July 1928, Page 7

UNUSUAL ACCIDENT

CHARGE AGAINSTMOTORIST 'As a sequel to a somewhat unusual accident' which! occurred on the Hutt road on 23rd April, Albert William Leadbrook was charged in the Magistrate's Court yesterday with having driven a motor-car in a manner which, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, might be dangerous to the public. Mr. W. E. Leicester represented tho defendant, and entered a plea of not guilty. Senior-Sergeant D. Scott, who prosecuted, said that at 6.20 on the evening ;of 23rd April the.driver of an omnibus proceeding to Wellington saw a motorcyclist run into a mob of cattle and injure himself. The. driver pulled up and was walking with some of his passengers to the scene of the accident when the defendant came from behind the bus on the wrong side of the road and ran into the bus-driver and one of ■th'(j_ passengers, causing them both to be injured. The two. men were carried on to the pavement by the motorcar. Evidence on these lines was called. •Mr. Leicester submitted that the accident, although an unfortunate one, was due to a sudden tmergency and not to any carelessness on the'defendant's part. Under the circumstances the defendant, when the cars in front of him stopped, had no option but to adopt the courso he had taken. Unfortunately the driver \of'the ..bus and the other man had rur. round in front, of his car, and the accident was inevitable. The defendant had immediately reported the accident to the police. The Magistrate (Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M.) held that there was no evidence of negligence or of dangerous driving, and dismissed the information.

The Fire Brigade was called at 1.7 p.m. yesterday to an .outbreak of fire, at 18 Tprrens terrace a,wooden building,, of two llpoi's,- containing six 'rooms, owned and occupied by Mrs. Tlannali O'Conlitvll. The ■weather boards on the south side of the building were partly damaged by fire and cutting away. The house was insured for £400 in the Commercial Union Office, but tlicre was no insurance on tho contents.