HEAVY FINE IMPOSED

Hutt News, Volume 1, Issue 25, 15 November 1928, Page 6

HEAVY FINE IMPOSED

INTOXICATED MOTORIST

John Edgar Bass was charged in the __L,OArcr Hutt Court recently before Mr J. H? Salmon, S.M., with, being intoxicated while in charge of a motor car. The case arose out of an accident "which occurred on the Main Road, north of Lower Hutt on Wednesday night last when Bass ran down and injured a cyclist named Morgan. Bass, for whom Mr H. J. Mazengarb appeared, pleaded not guilty.

Alfred Burgess, a civil servant, of Lower Hutt, stated that on Wednesday night he and Morgan were cycling side by side, himself on the edge of the bitumen and Morgan to his left on the macadam. The car came up from behind, grazed witness on his left side and ran over Morgan severely bruising' ■him and cutting his knee. The car was ■not travelling fast and pulled up in a few yards. Witness identified Bass as the driver of the car and said that he considered! him certainly not sober at the time of the aoeident and not fit to drive. Witness got Morgan into the car and Bass drove them to Dt. Barron's surgery. There was another man in' the «ar with Bass but when they came out of the surgery he was gone.

Oswald France, a carpenter who witnessed the accident, gave it as his, opinion that Bass was not sober. j

Constable C. Anson who was called to the accident, said that at the time Bass was well under the influence; of liquor. He seemed confused and "bothered," and later, at the Police Station, was certified to be undeT the influence of liquor by a doctor whom he (Bass) had sent for. The horn on Bass's car was not1 working.

Sergeant J. W. McHolm gave corroborative evidence.

John Edgar Bass, a merchant, said that he had been engaged all day Wednesday on the street in Wellington collecting for a charitable appeal. The liquor he had had that day was two "pony beers" at lunch time and two whiskies at six o'clock. lie) worked at his office until about nine o'clock and then started for Lower Hutt. Near Kaiwarra he was hailed by a stranger who asked for a rido out which he gave. At Lower Hutt he noticed the two cyclists ahead. They served in front of him and he, seeing a collision was inevitable, applied the brakes and tried to avoid them but hit Morgan. He was much agitated by the accident and by the sight of Morgan's injuries and was f uTther upset at the* .police by understanding the scrgea>nt to say that the man might die. He (Bass) was bound for Kiwi St., Lower Hutt, but missed it and went past his destination.

-The Magistrate saiil that lie ccmlrl see no ntitigating circumstances in the case. Bass's condition at .10.30 was deposed to by several Avitnesses as being under the influence of liquor* and a doctor at 12 o'clock said the same. Hifl Worship did not believe that Bass liad had no liquor since 6 o'clock

Bass was fined £25, in default 3 months' imprisonment and Ms license suspended until 1930. He was allowed a fortnight in which to pay.

An inquest was held at Lower Hutt on Thursday before Mr J. H. Salmon, S.M., into the death of George Ernest Costigan, aged 5, who was killed on Sutaday last by part of an ico chest falling upon him. The evidence showed that a heavy section of the ice chest, ■weighing- nearly three hundredweight, had been lying against the wall. The child was swinging on a small door and the' section of the whole overbalanced and fell upon him. A verdict was returned in accordance with the evidence that the boy died as the result of a. fracture at the base of the skull through being accidentally caught under part of an ice chest, no blame being attachable to anybody. The Ooroner expressed his sympathy with the parents of the child.