FAILURE TO STOP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23338, 5 May 1939, Page 13

FAILURE TO STOP

CAR DRIVER SENTENCED TWO YEARS' PROBATION For failing to stop after the motorcar he was driving had knocked down a cyclist on February 18 at the corner of Dominion Road and Rock lands Avenue, Peter James Bennett, aged 2S, sugar-boiler (Mr. Winter), was sentenced by Mr. Justice Callan in the Supreme Court yesterday. Counsel said accused had never been in trouble before, and asked for leniency on the ground that the cyclist had not been seriously injured, that the jury had apparently accepted accused's explanation that it was his intention to return to the scene of the "accident, and that he had already been fined in the lower Court on charges arising out of the same accident. His Honor said it was the good fortune of accused that the cyclist had not been seriously injured. It was not the - ordinary "hit-and-run" case, where a person made a callous attempt to run away. His Honor was disposed to believe that the crash into the stone wall was due to the fact that accused was craning his head and eyes backward to see something down the road the way he had come. Accused would be admitted to probation for two years, said His Honor. During that time he would pay the costs of the prosecution, which would amount to £ll 9s 4d. Accused would be disqualified from holding a driving licence for 12 months.