SPEED ON ROADS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22424, 21 May 1936, Page 12

SPEED ON ROADS

WARNING OF SCHOOLS PROSECUTION FAILS RULING BY MAGISTRATE RESTRICTED REGULATION A ruling that signs restricting speed to 15 miles an hour placed outsido schools could not be erected except on the roads actually passing schools was given in the Magistrate's Ceurt yesterday by Mr. Wyvorn Wilson, S.M. The inattor arose when Margaret I). Kirker was charged with dangerous driving on tho Great South Boad at 3.5 p.m. on April 28. A pica of not guilty was entered.

Constable Davies said defendant's car passed through the zone marked 15 miles an hour at the end of Jubilee Boad, where the Ellorslie school was situated, at about 35 milos an hour. Sho admitted travelling at 30 miles an hour. The road was the only outlet from the school and there were a number, of childron about.

Mr. H. P. Ilichmond, who appeared for defendant, submitted that she was travelling uphill toward the city. There was a clear view along Jubilee Boad and tho intersection was quite open. Sho was driving a modern car and could have stopped within a very short distance.

Counsel further claimed that tho regulation restricting speed to 15 miles an hour provided only for roads passing schools. The local authority could erect a sign restricting speed to 25 miles an hour, but not to 15 miles an hour unless tho road actually passed the school. In this case tho school was 300 yards from the Great South Boad.

" I cannot see that defendant was driving in a manner dangerous to the public," said the magistrate. " Tho intersection is not an ordinary one, as visibility is clear for a long way. Tho only grounds that might be considered to bo creating a danger are that there were a number of children about. I cannot think prima facie that it is an offenco for a person to drive along a highway at 30 miles an hour because there are a number of children about. The regulation applies only where the school is on the open highway." In reply to a question by Sub-Inspec-tor Fox the magistrate said the signs were improperly placed. Mr. Fox also raised the point that there had been a large number of convictions in the past few months. In most of these cases drivers wero travelling out from Auckland, said Mr. Wilson. That was a different matter as the intersection was then blind. The case was dismissed.

For a similar offenco when driving out of Auckland George A. McKendrick was lined £1 and costs.

REASONS FOR SIGNS WARNING TO MOTORISTS OTHER AUCKLAND LOCALITIES The decisiou of Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., that there is no legal authority for the 15 miles an hour " signs erected in thoroughfares near schools that are not actually on those thoroughfares, will affect a number 'of schools in and about tho city. Apart from the Ellerslie School and the Main South Boad signs, which were concerned in the prosecution, tho Grafton School and signs in Khyber Pass Boad and tho Boj'al Oak School, and in ■ Manukau Boad, are two familiar instances, in the city and suburbs these signs are erected by the local body controlling the area concerned, but in countrv districts signs aro sometimes erected in similar circumstances by the Automobile Association (Auckland).

The position is that the 15 milo nn hour requirement is not a by-law, but is provided for in the table of speeds in clause 3o in regulation No. 15 of tho motor regulations of the Dominion. It is not an offenco to drive at a speed exceeding 15 miles an hour, but in any prosecution for driving at a speed which might be dangerous, the fact that the motorist exceeded 15 miles an hour past a school would place the onus on him to prove that his so driving did not constitute a danger. " 1 think it is quite clear that tho regulation applies only where tho person is driving past the school," said Air. G. W. Hutchison, secretary of the Automobile Association (Auckland), yesterday. "It a school is in a side road, although notices are frequently erected as a warning to motorists, 1 hardly think a conviction could be made under the regulations." The Education Board is not directly concerned with tho position that may be created as a result of tho magistrate's decision. Mr. D. W. Dunlop, secretary of the board, to whom the case was referred, said remarkably few children were injured by motor vehicles. They seemed to have developed an instinct for self-preservation, and it was usually adults who were victims of street accidents. In the cases under consideration tho speed limit signs have been erected for the safety of school children who cross in large numbers at these points. It was stated that if there was anything illegal about tho form of these signs the commonsense course would seem to be to replace them with others not naming any speed, but cautioning motorists of the presence of a school closo by.