INTOXICATED MOTORIST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19333, 25 May 1937, Page 2

INTOXICATED MOTORIST

WAIROA MAN FINED £5 LICENSE CANCELLED (Special to the Herald.) WAIROA, this day. (dn a charge of being intoxicated while in charge of a motor car near Maminam late on Saturday night, Ronald Charles Arthur Brock, aged 88, was filled £5 and costs, had his license cancelled, and was prohibited from obtaining another for a year. The case was heard yesterday before Messrs. V. E. Winter and .1. W. B. Macdonald, .T.Ps,, and Sergeant Clark prosecuted. The accused, who pleaded not guilty, was represented hy Air. F. 11. Jones.

Sergeant Clark slated that the charge arose out of an accident. Dr. E. B. Jardine, in evidence, said that, when lie examined the accused at 12.80 a.ni. on Sunday, Brock was steady oil his feet and his hands were steady, but, there was no question that, he had been taking liquor. He was not ia a fit condition to drive a

Constable Gatehouse said that when lie arrived on the scene of the accident at 11.15 p.m. the, accused was staggering, and was not able to walk the, chalk line at the police station. Ho speech was thick. 'flic accident occurred near a bend in the road which was 21 fi wide and had a beautiful surface. The- car finished up in a hole 4ft deep.

Constable Matches, who accompanied Constable Gatehouse to the scene of the accident, said that the accused maintained that he had been da/./,led by the lights of an approaching car.

•Sergeant Clark said that the accused went through the tests clumsily, and was not in a fit state to drive a car.

Mr. .Tones submitted that the case was a borderline one, and the accused should be given the benefit. lie had had a few drinks during the day and several light shandies .ia the evening.

The accused, in evidence, said that after tea on the Koau, he went for a drive with three mombqrs of the crew. At the time of the accident he was dazzled by ilie lights of a car, and “wont plop into it hole.” Evidence given hy three members of the Koau'.s crew stated that the accused was perfectly sober, and in a proper condition to drive a ear.