CAR v. CART.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 17

CAR v. CART.

COLLISION AT GREEN ISLAND.

CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS

As a consequence of a collision on the Green Island road on the night of the 24th of March between a motor oar and a cart, a charge was heard in the Police Court on the 20th before Mr H. Y. Widdovrson, S.M., against the driver of the former for having failed to keep on his left-hand side. The defence was a denial of this charge and an assertion that the car had complied with the rule of the road and that the driver of the'cart had caused the accident by going to his wrong side. . David Laurie Hutton was formally charged that, being the driver of a motor oar, he did, oh the 24th of March, at Green Island, fail to keep such vehicle to the left-hand or near side of the road. Subinspector Phair said the charge was laid under section 4, subsection c, of "The Police Offences Act, 1908." Mr Irwin appeared for defendant, and pleaded "Not guilty." At the latter's request all witnesses were ordered out of court. George William Bush, a carrier residing at Mornington, to whom the accident happened, said the accident had happened on the night before Good Friday. He was engaged taking several parcels of luggage, as well as four passengers, to Brighton. About 7.45 o'clock, when he was about a quarter of a mile past the Junction Hotel—■ right opposite the Wesleyan Church on the Main South road, —the car struck him. He was keeping to his near. side, and saw the car coming about a quarter of a mile away. It had two lights, and he himself had one light on the off side. The car, when it got close to him, was travelling on the side he was on—his near side and its off side. When he noticed this he slowed down and called out, "Why don't you.keep to your right side?" He then kept more to his proper side and was hard up to the gutter. * When he called out the car was ; ight on to him. After he spoke the car tried to get through on its off side, but then, when it could not, it cut right across, striking his horse on the nose, breaking the '..ear shaft, and taking the trap right round in a reverse way, facing town again. Damage was also done to the other shaft, •at the vehicle itself was not capsized. 'hen he found the motor car coming ■ iwards him. he did not alter his course, rive to turn more to the left. When he -»as driving, Arthur Alexander was sitting •>esid© him, and Johnson was sitting inside, behind Alexander, with the ladies. After : le collision, when he got his horse loose, ic animal got away. He had to follow 'and he did not catch it till it had got . i far as the Industrial School. One of the occupants of the car came up to mm and said, "You'll have to pay for this car." He had not seen the defendant either then or since. To Mr Irwin: The lamp, he had was an ordinary one, and it was still alight after the accident. The horse was a grey one. There were two i-oads—a. hard road and an earth road, the latter being about a foot lower. The hard road was on his near side—the east side,— and he was on that hard part, the motor car being also there. He did not know the width of the hard piece, but he should think there was any amount of room for two to pass on it. Ho had measured the whole of the road—the hard and the soft,— and it was 39ft wide. The soft read had been formed by people going off to save their horses. . t His Woirship here intimated that ne would visit the locality. Continuing, witness said, when asked about paying for the car. he had replied, " Why didn't you keep to your right side.' He said nothing further, and then went for the horse without troubling about the accident. When the car was stopped it was standing straight along on its correct side. The night was a dark one, as the moon ha ->fc risen. • Alexander, who was in the expi\ it.ting in the front seat with Bush, srnv .id-anee. He said he could see the liain in the express all the time. The night was clear and bright, and the moon was s ining at the time of the collision. The Magistrate here made reference to an almanac to determine the difference upon the condition of the night—whether moonlight or not. The almanac showed it had boen practically full moon for two hours. Witness, resuming to the Sub-inspector: When he first saw the car it appeared to be in the centre of the road, and then it took its wrong side. The car approached on its wrong side till very close, and then pulled sharply across. The motor oar sustained damage on its right side. After a detailed cross-examination relative to the accident, witness said the express had been wheeled to the edge of the road. After the accident, the express had been in the middle of the road. When the car approached the horse xwerved a little to the Tight, and the car then struck it. Bven if the horse had. not swerved out the car not have cleared the express. Only

the front wheels swerved out, and the whole express had not time to answer. Evidence was also given by Hugh Johnson. H> said on? of the occupants of the car blamed Bush for the accident. Constable Bos worth, Green Island, also gave evidence. Mr Irwin, for the defence, submitted that the magistrate, would hesitate to convict. In this case there was more dependent on the case> than in an ordinary instance of breach of by-laws. .-lis Worship- That is one reason why T want to see the car and the road. Mr Irwin submitted that defendant was a careful driver,; with seven years' experience. He had" never had any collision before. Was it reasonable to suppose that this man would! attempt to pass on the wrong side when there was plenty of room on his proper side? To do that he would be deliberately doing something he knew to be wrong. Further reviewing the case, counsel pointed out that on seeing the horse. —the first thing he saw, for no light was visible —the driver swerved his car on to his proper side, went over as far as he could, and then straightened up, shut off the power and applied the brakes as be saw the horse <;oming for him. If the police story were correct, there was this difficulty: They said the collision occurred as the oar was swerving across the road, and yetwhen the accident was over the oar was standing straight along the road in its proper position, and not pa6t the express. At the moment of impact the driver was rendered unconscious and the driving wheel smashed. Therefore the car, having power on it and being pointed across the road, would have continued over the bank till stopped. Yet the car was standing still and properly. Further, if the car was travelling fast, it would have passed the express after the collision before it could be stopped, and yet the express remained ahead of the car after the accident. The driver's story was a more probable one—■ namely, that- he had shut off the power and applied the brakes as he saw the horee coming over towards him. David Laurie Hutton gave evidence. The car belonged to Mr Cheyne, for whom he had been working for two years and . a-half. He had taken the car to Saddle Hill to " tune her up " prior to going to Riverton, and was returning when the incident happened. After leaving Green Island—the lights having been switched on before then —the night was dark. The first he saw was a grey horse—a hard thing to see against the white road—about 10 or 12 yards away. He had seen no light on the express, and for his part did not believe there was one. As soon as he saw the grey horse he pulLed over to his left. He noticed the express coming over too. He pulled further over till he could go no further, and then, still seeing the horse, straightened the car up and applied his brakes. The car was almost stopped, the last thing he remembered. His intention was to stand, for there was then a chance of the other man pulling out, while there was no room for him to turn out again. The last thing he remembered was the grey horse beside him. He was being carried to a house when he recovered consciousness. Subsequently, on examining the car, he found the seat wrenched off, the back tonneau pushed back a little, the side lamp screens broken, the horn flattened out. the tube torn, the steering column bent back, the rim of the steering wheel broken off, and the 6pokes of the wheel bent up very badly. It was not possible for him to have changed the direction of the car and pulled it up after the impact. The steering gear was bent, and required to be straightened before being used. It was not true to say that he had tried to pass on his wronsr side and had then pulled across and struck the horse. When he saw the exnress he judged it was coming up the middle of the hard road, and so far as he knew he was going down the middle. After the accident most of the glass was almost against the telegraph post, -which was on his side. The pace at which he was going before he saw the horse would be about 12 or 15 miles an hour. He had been drivinc for about seven years, and had never had a collision before or an->- accidep* as the of neffltcence. He had done a lot of night drivine for doctors and private people. On the Sub-insneotor »sHn<* the witness if he h»d a certificate, defendant's counsel obiect.ed. He did not know whether or not the defendant had n certificate, but tK» Question had no bearing on t*« case. It involve criminal prceepd'nor*. question was flowed to stand over. "Further, to the Sub-inspector, witness p.nid he had had no dr-"n!r wba.Wnr ■'*hiphf r the da". 'Thev had left town »* 5.30. 'and had a. hVht snack jit Saddle Hill. On the wav out hf hfld had i, glass o f claret. On returning he had left about 7 p.m.. and Jit th<*- lamps shortlv afterwards. When he met the expressman the latter was on hi« oorr»ct side: but the accident wps caused bv Bush or the horse going straight across tb" road into the car. Robert Hutton, compositor. North-East

Valley, who was on the front seat with his brother, described the accident similarly. There was no light whatever on the express that he could see. James A. Fra7.er, compositor, also gave evidence. He was quite positive that the collision occurred after the car had been taken right over to the left of the road. Had the impact occurred on the hard road the driver would have had to be thrown about 10 yards through the air to land where he was lying in the long grass at the side of the road. Alexander Bennett, another occupant, gave evidence. In his opinion the horse had struck the car, which was practically at a standstill, rather than that the car had struck the horse. The car did not move more than three yards at the very outside after the collision, which had occurred on the very left' side of the road. At 5 p.m. the Magistrate adjourned the case sine die, and intimated his intention of arranging for expert evidence in reference to the car. He said he would also inspect the car and locality.