ACCIDENT SEQUEL

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4144, 8 June 1949, Page 5

ACCIDENT SEQUEL

DRIVER INTOXICATED { i ,■ INCIDENT AT KOPU ’ * i CAR AND TAXI INVOLVED ’ v' For being intoxicated in charge of ; a motor car on the Thames-Paeroa main highway at 2 o'clock on a recent < morning, Desmond Leonard Hogg, of Blockhouse Bay, Auckland, was fined £l5, doctor’s fees £1 Is, and had hia license suspended for 12 months, in the Thames Police Court. ,r

Sergeant N. Baylis stated that a report of an accident had been received by the Thames police at 2 a.m. ' and on proceeding along the ThamesPaeroa main highway, the traffic in- ■ spector, Mi- K. R. Sharpe, and Constable A. Gray found a taxi from Ngatea lying on its side a few hundred yards past, the Kopu Hotel. •

Evidence showed that the taxi had gon? into the ditch with its front wheel, travelling some 87 feet along the left-hand side of the road towards Paeroa, before capsizing.

In a rental car. which was facing towards Thames on the opposite side of the road, defendant was found sitting at the front wheel, asleep. The driver and occupant of the taxi were not present when the police arrived, and a doctor who had come to the accident had returned to Ngatea. Hogg was examined by Dr. T. E. Afiller on being brought back to Thames.

“ It would appear from the evidence which we have been able to find there that defendant took the wrong way, and instead of going back to Ngatea he proceeded towards Paeroa,” said the sergeant. The driver of the taxi had gone back to inform him of his mistake, and while he was turning, a collision took place. Hogg, who pleaded guilty, was described as a married man, 27 years of age, an itinerant dealer in men’s goods, who often worked in Ngatea, As far as could be ascertained he had not been in any previous trouble. Messrs W. Bongard and J. Galloway were the presiding Justices of the Peace. “ The defendant has pleaded guilty and the only thing we can do is to adminster the law,” said Mr Bongard. “ You have left yourself -open to the usual penalty. Your license will have to be suspended for 12 months and you will also be fined £15.” Doctor’s fees of £1 Is were added to this, and defendant was given seven days in which to pay. "J