LIABILITY DENIED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17125, 4 December 1929, Page 10

LIABILITY DENIED

MGTOPJST’S ACCIDENT GLADSTONE ROAD REPAIRS Holding that the Borough Council was responsible) for the damage, Mi. W. S. Allen, in. a letter to tlio town clerk on November 28, claimed to recover the cost of repairs to a car driven by his wife, which collided with a building at the corner of "Roebuck ro»d and Gladstone road. Mr. Alien stated that at 6.35 p.m. his wife, while driving up Roebuck road, failed to see a wire stretched across the road until almost on top of it, and in swinging round to avoid crashing into the wire, sho crashed into the corner of a disused shop opposite the service station. As the obstruction was not clearly discernible at that hour of the evening, (lie writer held the council liable for the damage to Mrs. Allen’s car and the building. The estimated cost of repairs to the car was £4 or £5. In reply to Mr. Allen, the town clerk wrote stating that the council could recognise no liability whatever in the , matter. The roadway in question had been in course of reconstruction for a considerable time back, and as each section was undertaken it was carefully fenced and lighted at nights. At the time of the accident the locality was not lighted, but at 6.35 p.mit was broad' daylight, ajicl a light was not necessary. The work under construction was clearly discernible, and any motorist exercising only reasonable care and caution at the intersection should not have collided with the obstruction.

To this Mr. Allen replied, stating that he could not agree with the town clerk’s assertion that the sections had been properly fenced. He asked that j the matter should! be placed before the council at last evening’s meeting, stating that upon the council’s decision ho ' would be guided as to what steps to take, in furtherance of his claim. ! The Mayor, Mr. 1). W. Coleman, remarked that it was broad daylight when the accident occurred, and he could not see how any motorist exercising reasonable care would want to go over the rough portion of tho road, even if no wire had been placed there. “Any person' running into that wire is, in my opinion, negligent,” remarked Cr. S. V. Beaufoy, in moving that the town clerk’s letter denying liability should bo approved. The motion was carried unanimously, j