A TECHNICAL BREACH

Hokitika Guardian, 15 April 1929, Page 2

A TECHNICAL BREACH

BL-LAW CHARGE AGAINST

CLERGYMAN.

CHRISTCHURCH, April 13

A charge of failing to give away to a motorit approaching on the right at an intersection’ preferred against the Rev. Norman L. D. Webster in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, was dismissed by Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M. Sub-Inspector O'Hare said than on ■February 12 the defendant was driving north Oxford Terrace, and at the intersection of that street with Gloucester Street he collided with a car which was going west along Gloucester Street. The defendant had given way to another car which crossed just in front of the car with which his came into collision.

Frank William ’bickens, ,a student, the driver of the second car, said: “Defendant didn’t see me, and crashed into me. I saw him on my left, and thought that he would give way. He said that he was sorry that the accident had occurred, and that he had not seen my car." The defendant: Were not your first Words, “It was a sheer accident.?”

Witness: They may have been. “Did not my demeanour show that I had not seen the Baby Austin on account of the big limousine immediately in front?" “Yes.”

“It was a conspiracy of circumstances, a pure accident,” said the defendant in evidence. “His car was a very small one, with the hood down, and he was sitting well down in it. 1 was in a Ford coupe with balloon tyres, and that made me pretty high up. Owing to the slope of the road and the fact that a big limousine, to which l gave way, was directly in front of the Austin, I missed seeing it My front mudguard struck the Austin and turned it over." “The breach is such a technical one that I will dismiss the case,” said the Magistrate.