ACCIDENT WIZARD

Evening Star, Issue 19856, 3 May 1928, Page 6

ACCIDENT WIZARD

SPEED OF COLLIDING VEHICLE CALCULATED (Per United Press Associatioh.j WELLINGTON, May 15. Interesting evidence was given in a motor collision action to-day by Vernon Alfred Alexander Vernon, a retired engineer, and captain of the Royal Navy. He gave Jus credentials, saying lie had been technical adviser to tho Eourth Sea Lord when he was _a commodore, and had been engaged in high-class engineering since July, 1891. Given the weight of two vehicles going into collision, and tho speed of one vehicle, he could definitely ascertain the speed of the other object, and by a practical test could ascertain whether his theories were correct. Ho had been supplied with the weights of the vehicles involved in the case, and had made careful examination of the motor cycle concerned. He had been told that, at tho moment of the accident, the speed of the taxi cab was twenty-five miles an hour. Applying the principles h© was familiar with, he had, worked out the speed of the cycle to be thirtyfive miles. Ho had carried out a practical test to verify his theories. He had had a similar taxi sent against a fixed object at 8.3 miles an hour, tho speed required, tho object being a concrete wall, and the throttle being fixed to give flic si»ecd required and to obviate tb.i human element, there being no driver. The cab used in the test was not quite so much damaged as that in the actual collision, leading to tho conclusion that tho speed of one or other vehicle was not high enough. Jt would have taken more than a relative speed of sixty miles to have produced Iho damage that took place m the collision.