MOTOR CAR COLLISION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3869, 8 May 1928, Page 14

MOTOR CAR COLLISION.

EXPERT EVIDENCE AS TO SPEED. iVTLLINGTON, May 3. Interesting evidence was given in a motor collision action to-day by Vernon Alfred Alexander Vernon, a retired engi neer, and captain of the Royal Navy. H« gave his credentials, saying he had been technical adviser to the Fourth Sea Lord when he was a commodore, and had been engaged in liigh-class engineering since July. 1831. Given the weight of two vehicles going into collision, and the speed of ono vehicle, he could definitely ascer tain the speed of the other object, and by a practical test could ascertain whether his theories were correct. He had been supplied with the weight-, of the vehicles tn volved in the case, and had made a care ful examination of th emotor cycle concerned. He had been told that at -.he moment of the accident, the speed of the taxi cab was 25 miles an hour. Applying the principles he was familiar with, he had worked cut the speed of the cycle o by 35 miles. He ha-d carried out a practical test to verify his theories. He had had a similar taxi sent against a fixed object at 8.3 miles an hour, the speed rettired, the object being a concrete wall, and the throttle being fixed to give the speed required and to ob-riate the human element, there being no drives.. The cal; used ’in the test was not quite so much damaged as in the actual collision, leading to the conclusion that the speed of ono or other vehicle was not high enough. It would have taken more than a relative speed of 60 miles to have pro duced the damage that took place in the collision.