TRAFFIC CASES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23221, 15 December 1938, Page 21

TRAFFIC CASES

MOTORISTS IN COURT RACE TO HOTEL BEFORE SIX DANGEROUS DRIVING CHARGE A motorist who passed a stationary tramcar at the Great South Road terminus and continued on to Ellerslie at a speed of 53 miles an hour, gave the excuse, when charged in the Magistrate's Court yesterday with dangerous driving, that he had only a few minutes to meet a friend outside the Ellerslie Hotel before six o'clock. He was fined £3 10s by Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M. In the case of a similar charge against a motor-cyclist, it was stated that he crossed the. intersection of Green Lane Road at 45 miles an hour, and continued on along the Great South Road for some distance at 55 miles an hour. He had previously committed motoring breaches, but recently sold his cycle. A fine of £.3 10s was imposed. lwo women drivers were eacii fined £2 for leaving the kerb without,giving a signal. In one case a collision was caused, and in the other the defendant said she used the automatic signal, but it failed to operate. The magistrate said such offences amounted to negligent driving, and if there were many more cases the fine would be increased. An elderly man who drove across in front of a tramcar, thinking it was going away from him instead of approaching him, admitted a charge of negligent driving. It. was stated that he was very deaf, and suffered serious injuries in the collision. The magistrate, Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, said defendant had been sufficiently punished. Suspending his driving licence for a month and endorsing it, the magistrate said it was a proper course to draw the attention of the issuing authority to defendant's deafness. "Five, ten, fifteen, twenty shillings," said Mr. Levien, imposing fines on a driver, charged with irregular parking, who produced four warning tickets, which he said he had received in a week. The magistrate said one warning should have been sufficient. The excuse given by a truck driver that he was under the impression that a warrant of fitness for a vehicle was issued for a year was not accepted by Mr. Orr Walker, who imposed fines of 10s in such cases.

Three Courts were engaged in hearing a total of 111 cases against motorists for various breaches of the regulations. The penalties' imposed ranged from payment of costs to fines of £3 10s.