ALLEGED SPEEDING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1937, Page 4

ALLEGED SPEEDING

MIX-UP AT INTERSECTION

CAR-DRIVER PROSECUTED

An accident on October 2 in which' a motor-cyclist was injured had its sequel in the Lower Hutt Court yesterday, when Justin McCarthy Power was charged that, by negligence, he cuused damage to a telephone pole. He was also charged with driving at a speed and in a. manner which was dangerous to the public and .with. not. having ■ a. driver's licence.

Sergeant P. Munro prosecuted. Mr. A. J. Mazengarb, who appeared for Power, entered a plea of guilty on the charge of not having a driver's licence and not guilty on the other charges. Lillian Bessie Piper, who witnessed the occurrence, said she thought the speed of Power's car too fast for an intersection. Joseph Griffiths, a carpenter, said he was proceeding southwards on his motor-cycle. As he approached the V.I.C. corner he sounded his horn as warning to a pedestrian about to step on to the road. His speed he gave as 20 m.p.h. A car came out from Mellingßoad travelling so quickly that he did not have time to apply his brakes. A collision occurred and he had to go to hospital. He estimated^ the car's speed at 35 m.p.h. He denied that he applied.his brakes and left a skid mark of 28 feet.

Constable Jones said that the motorcycle was lying on the intersection 22 feet from the south-east corner of Brunswick Street. The car was wedged between a taxi and'a telegraph post. There appeared to be. a skid mark of 27 feet, caused apparently by the application of the brakes, on the motor-cycle. The car travelled 19 feet after the collision. . • .

Power, an employee of Wool-worth's, said his speed approaching the intersection was 20 m.p.h. at most. ■ He stopped to allow another car to get across and proceeded over the intersection at a speed he estimated between 10 and 12 m.p.h. He saw a: motor-cyclist approaching him at a fair speed but expected him to give way. He was almost across the intersection when the collision occurred. He pulled over to the side and thus grazed the taxi, and came to rest gently against the post.

A brother of the defendant corrq-, borated this version of the affair, and counsel then said he Jiad fully expected the police would have called a witness who saw the whole accident, but they had not. '

Arrangements were made to hear the evidence of this witness at Upper Hutt today, and the case meantime was adjourned.