CARELESS DRIVING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22313, 24 April 1947, Page 4

CARELESS DRIVING

TRUCK DRIVER CHARGED SEQUEL TO ACCIDENT A truck driver for the Okitu Dairy Company, Charles Edward Davis, was convicted in the Gisborne Magistrate's Court yesterday and ordered to pay costs amounting to £lB 11s tid on a charge of driving without due care and attention. Senior-Sergeant G. S. Norris prosecuted for the police, while Mr. E. T. Brosnahan appeared for defendant. Evidence that he and the defendant had been involved in a collision on the main road at Makauri on February 14 was given by an air force sergeantinstructor stationed at Hobsonville, Robert Denton Freeman. He was travelling behind the truck driven by Davis, when the truck swung to the right, without any warning being given. At the time Freeman was about to pass the truck, and in order to save his car from hitting the side of the truck, he was forced to swing to the right, finishing up in a ditch, after striking the truck a glancing blow. Mrs. Freeman, who was also a passenger in the car, corroborated the evidence of her husband.. A plan of the area was produced by Constable Heaslip. . , , The defendant, in evidence, stated that he put his hand out before turning, and had practically completed his turn before anything happened. The rear vision mirror on the truck was not efficient, and he did not think there would be very much of his hand showing past the cans on the tray when he put it out. Turning was a dangerous manoeuvre, said the magistrate, quoting an authority, and it was the duty of the man making the turn to see that everything was clear on the road behind. _ Putting his hand out did not absolve him from blame.