MIDNIGHT COLLISION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22578, 17 November 1936, Page 12

MIDNIGHT COLLISION

NEGLIGENT DRIVING DEEP-SEA ANGLER PROSECUTED [FROM Ol'R OWN" correspondent] HAMILTON, Monday A plea of guilty was entered on behalf of Stanley Ellis in tho Hamilton Police Court to-day to a charge of driving his motor-car in a negligent manner. Senior-Sergeant G. H. Lambert said that at To Rapa at midnight on October 15 defendant collided with a lorry, which was conveying fish from Napier to Auckland. Although the lorry had six wheels and weighed three tons it was turned upside down. Senior-Sergeant Lambert said there was a suggestion that defendant had been drinking. When seen by tho police, however, he was not intoxicated. Mr. W. J. King said he had no authority to admit that defendant had been drinking, although ho admitted he was driving on the wrong side of tho road. Defendant had three ribs broken and was faced with heavy personal claims for damages arising from tho loss of goods and the loss of use of the lorrv. Tho magistrate, Mr. S. L. Paterson, imposed a fine of 10s and suspended defendant's driving licence for six months. .Mr. King asked that tho suspension be postponed for a week, as defendant was deep-sea fishing at Whangaroa and he might use his car without knowing that his licence was suspended. Mr. Paterson agreed to date tho suspension from November 19.