A FATEFUL ROAD RACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 27

A FATEFUL ROAD RACE

Argument between two. motorists as to who possessed the better car ended recently in one being killed and the other being sent to prison for manslaughter, says the "News-Chronicle."

The two men, Arthur Brooke, aged 32, motor engineer, of Huddersfield. and Jack Broughton Green, aged 22, of Sheffield, agreed, it was stated at Leeds Assizes, to race each other by night from Huddersfield to Sheffield, a distance of 20 ■miles, for a wager of £5.

Before the two cars had gone a mile Green, who was at the time about 80 yards behind Brooke, skidded, crashed into a traffic island, and received terrible injuries from which he died a week later.

Charges of manslaughter and dangerous driving were subsequently preferred against Brooke, who, found guilty at the Assizes, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. He was also disqualified from holding a driving licence for seven years. The jury recommended him to mercy.

Passing sentence, Mr. Justice Singleton said that juries in Britain never liked convicting anyone of manslaughter. He believed that the verdict in this case was a right one.

In the course of his summing-up the Judge agreed that the case was unusual in more senses than one, and that it was not often a charge of manslaughter arose in such circumstances.

"But," he proceeded, "the roads and highways of this country were built for the convenience of the public, and were intended for the use of all classes of the community, whether engaged in business or pleasure.

"It is contrary to the interests of

the public, and also against the convenience of the public, that a highway should be used for the purpose of a race between motorists.

"If two drivers of motor-cars agree that they will race on the highway in a manner which involves danger to and disregard of the safety of other road-users, and if they enter into such contest and one is killed as the direct result of that contest—that is manslaughter." ■

The Judge emphasised that if Green lost his life as the ■ result. of his own negligence and not as.the outcome of the contest Brooke was not guilty of manslaughter.

Outlining .the circumstances in which Green came by his death, Mr. W. A. Macfarlane, prosecuting, explained that the two cars ' started from the Ritz Cinema, Huddersfield, at 9.45 p.m.

At Green Cross Corner, on the Wakesfield Koad, under a mile from the starting-place, and with Brooke ahead, Green met with disaster.

Brooke had taken a corner sharply a second or so previously, and eyewitnesses of the accident declared that both cars were travelling at "terrific speed." . ■ ~

Counsel submitted that the men were engaged in a race, which meant that each was inciting the other to drive dangerously, and this, in law, was tantamount to manslaughter on the part of the survivor.

Brooke, a married man with two children, stated that the arrangements were that they should "drive with due respect to other people using the road; obey all traffic signals, and so on." They were also not to take undue risks.

"We were not going to risk our necks for the sake of a fiver," Brooke added.