LAW AND SENSE
PETONE CONUNDRUMS
"It is abundantly clear that from the point of view of common-sense that the bus driver did the right thing; but in this case the law. is not1 common-sense. Defendant is charged with failing to pass the legal point of intersection; and he did not do so. lam satisfied that the regulations never intended that in a case of this kind the drivers should do so, but as the law stands it does require that this should bo done," said Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., in a ease at Petone this morning, in which B. W. Horc, a bus driver, was charged with failing to keep on the left of the intersection of Jackson street and the Hutt road, which meet it an acute angle. Evidence was given that to go round the legal intersection when, turning out of Jackson street in a northerly direction would be more dangerous than to take the route which the bus driver took.
The borough inspector (Mr. W. B. Gough) stated that when the streets were "domed" drivers would_ not bo required to go round the true intersection of these two streets. i The Magistrate "reconciled "the law and common-sense' by dismissing the case as trivial under section 82 of the Justices of the Peace Act. • The bus driver was also charged with failing to give way to traffic on his right, and here again there appeared to be a conflict between law and common-
sense. "It was almost impossible/ said the Bench, "to escape a breach, of this regulation as, no matter'how far away an approaching car might be, if there was the possibility of an accident the driver on tho left must give way. There evidently was the possibility of an accident in this case, as an accident did occur. The car approaching might have been the Golden Arrow or the- Bluebird, and if .the car travelling; at a fast rate, made an accident possible, the other driver must stop. The offence in this case was merely- a technical one, and would be covered by a conviction without penalty." _ The driver of the. car which collided with tho bus is being proceeded against on a charge of driving in a manner which might have been dangerous to the public.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 25 March 1931, Page 11
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382LAW AND SENSE Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 25 March 1931, Page 11
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