DRUNKEN MOTORIST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19977, 20 December 1926, Page 12

DRUNKEN MOTORIST

A SERIES OF COLLISIONS. FINED, AND LICENSE SUSPENDED. « (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, December 19. An admission that he was drunk while in charge of a motor car in Willis street was made by Charles Edward Barton, a kinematographer, aged 38, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. • Senior Sergeant Lander stated that Barton collided head-on with a tram car, swerved to the side of the road, struck another motor car and then hit a telegraph pole. The tram car was damaged to the extent of £2 12s 6d. Mr W. Perry, for the accused, said that his client had been working in a dark room all day developing films and was feeling a little seedy. He admitted quite frankly that ho had had three stiff brandies and said the accident had occurred as a result of his having swerved to avoid striking a pedestrian. Mr J. H. Salmon, S.M.. said the fact that a man was feeling unwell was all the more reason why he should not take liquor when he had to drive a motor car. Barton was fined £2O and was ordered to make good the cost of the repairs to the tram car. The Magistrate also ordered that his license should be suspended for three months, default was fixed at two months’ imprisonment.