ASCERTAINING SPEEDS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 4 May 1928, Page 5

ASCERTAINING SPEEDS.

VEHICLES INVOLVED IN COLLISION. INTERESTING TESTS mi n.|,H«RAPTI -PRESS association I WELLINGTON, May 3. Interesting evidence was given in a motor collision action to-day, by Veruor. Alfred Alexander Vernon, a retired engineer, Captain of the Royal Navy. He gave his credentials saying that he hac: been technical advisor ‘ ) tin .fourth sea lord when he was commo Ct i am", had been engaged in high class engineering since July 1891 ._ Given the weight of two vehicles going into collision and the speed of one vehicles, he could definitely ascertain the speed of the other object and by practical test could ascertain if liis; theories were correct. He had been supplied with weights of the vehicles involved in the case and had made a. careful examina tion of the motor cycle concerned. He had been told that at the moment of the accident, the speed of the taxicab was 25 miles per hour. Applying the principals he was familiar with, he -had worked out the speed of the cycle to be thirty five miles per hour. He 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 per hour, the speed required, and the object being a concrete wall. The throttled engine was fixed to give the speed required and to. obviate the human element, there being no driver. The cab used in tne test was not quite so much damaged as that in the actual collision, leading to the conclusion that the speed of one or other of the vehicles was not high enough. It would have taken more than the relative speed of sixty miles to have produced the damage that took place in the collision.