CHARGES OF SPEEDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19929, 24 April 1928, Page 13

CHARGES OF SPEEDING.

TWELVE MOTORISTS FINED. THE METHOD OF TIMING. CRITICISM BY MAGISTRATE. [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] PAPAKURA, Monday. Sixteen motorists were charged at a sitting of the Papakura Police Court today with driving at a dangerous speed on the Great South Road at Papakura. Fines were imposed in 12 cases as follows, the amount being varied by the magistrate, Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., in accordance with the degree of danger revealed in each case :

L. N. Harding, whose speed was given as 36 miles an hour, £3; B. Facoory, 35 miles, £2; G. E. Jones, 32 miles, £2; W. O'Donnell, 32 miles, £2; H. Macaskill, 36 miles, £2; J. Thomson, 36 miles, £1; P. Field, 36 miles, £1; T. H. Watts, 37 miles, £1; E. Spencer, 31 miles, £1; A. E. Stuart, 36 miles, £1; I. S. C. Vallance, 34 miles, 10s; H. Cliff, 37 miles, 10s. Each of the foregoing defendants was also ordered to pay costs, ranging from 10s upwards. In defended cases the method used in timing cars to ascertain their speed came in for some comment. In a case against George W. Sherlaw, who was stated by William White, recently-appointed traffic inspector to the Papakura Town Board, to have traversed a measured quarter of a mile at 36 miles an hour, the inspector said that, with the previous inspector, Mr. J. E." Morilleau he stood close to one end of the measured distance, where they could see cars entering the other end of the measured distance. They both started stop watches as a car entered and stopped them as it passed beyond the length. English System Fairer. The magistrate said the English system was much fairer to the motorist than the system in use here, whereby days could elapse before the motorist received any notice of the matter at all. By that time it might prove very difficult for the motorist to recall his speed and the other circumstances at the time he passed over the measured length. The defendant, Sherlaw, said he had almost to stop to avoid a motor-cyclist just before reaching the measured length over which his time was taken, and he was quite sure he did not regain sufficient speed to average 36 miles an hour. He kept a good look-out when passing intersections and he had his car under full control all the time.

The charge was dismissed. Two charges against I. B. Montgomerie were also dismissed. Evidence was given by James Morilleau and an assistant, Henry J. Marks, that defendant travelled north over the road at 36 miles an hour and returned at a speed of 40 miles an hour.

On production of their notebooks the magistrate called attention to an apparent discrepancy in the entries, in that one witness' book showed another car passing through the "trap" immediately ahead of defendant's car and the other witness* hook showed it passing through after nhe defendant, but both cars were timed at the same minute. Exact Timing Essential. One witness said the cars might have been timed together. This would be done in the case of one car entering the "trap" immediately behind or abreast of another and leaving the trap the same distance behind or still abreast. In reply to the magistrate, this witness admitted there was no method of ascertaining whether the second car was exactly the same distance behind at the start of the "trap" as at the end; of the trap, where they, the inspectors, were standing. Pointing out that the inspectors had charge of a criminal prosecution, the magistrate said their evidence left the matter in a completely unsatisfactory state. Exactitude in the timing was essential if the prosecution was to succeed, but they appeared to have tried to do the impossible by timing two cars at once. Both prosecutions against Montgomerie would bo dismissed. A charge against E. C. Dunton was dismissed as there was no proof that Dunton was the driver of the £ar at the time in question. In a case against A. E. Alien, it was explained that Allen had already been fined for the offence but the summons had been duplicated. The case was dismissed and the Town Board ordered to pay defendant's costs.