ROAD HOGS

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11400, 20 March 1930, Page 3

ROAD HOGS

• INTERESTING CASE. Electric Telegraph —T'ress Association TE AROHA, March 18. Strong exception was taken by the Piako County Council at a meeting to-day to the part taken by. the Auckland Automobile Association in a recent case at Te Aroha, when a Hamilton motorist was prosecuted on information, led by a county traffic inspector, for speeding on the main highway near Morrinsville. The Auckland Automobile Association took the case up for defence and established that on the day of the alleged offence, the speedometer on the inspector’s motorcycle with which the speed of defendant’s car was registered, was not proved accurate by reliable tests. It was not denied that the speed was 40 miles an hour, but the defence held that as the prosecution rested its case on the reliability of the speedometer, it must fail, in the absence of proof that the speedometer was correct. The tests' made were by an ordinary watch. The magistrate’s decision was in favour of the defendant, on the grounds submitted by the association and it was held, further than even if defendant was travelling at 42 miles an hour, it was not dangerous in the circumstances. In speaking at the County Council meeting, M.r F. IV. Walters said there was little use in the council having a traffic inspector if it was going to be held that a speed of over 40 miles an hour was permissible. If, when the County Council, in trying to maintain the roads in good order, endeavoured to stop speeding,' the Auckland Automobile Association was going' to fight it, all country people should cease being members of the association. It was pointed out that it was not a question with the county ot danger to the public but the damage to the roads. It was decided to see]; file assistance of other county councils in countering the influence of the Automobile Association.