DAMAGES CLAIM FAILS

Southland Times, Issue 24109, 24 April 1940, Page 7

DAMAGES CLAIM FAILS

CAR COLLISION LAST JUNE PLAINTIFF NON-SUITED A claim for damages amounting to £55/9/6, arising out of a motor-car collision at the intersection of Yarrow and Kelvin streets on June 21 last year, was heard in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, before Mr R. C. Abernethy, S.M. The accident involved a car driven by Mrs H. R. McKnight, and owned by L. Paul Wesney, the plaintiff, and another car driven by Frederick Walker, the defendant. Mr B. W. Hewat appeared for the plaintiff and Walker was represented by Mr Eustace Russell. Ater evidence had been heard the plaintiff was non-suited. Hazel Ruth McKnight, married, said she had been driving a car for about 10 years. On the evening of June 21 last she was driving a car along Yarrow street towards Dee street. The car belonged to her brother, the plaintiff in the action. Approaching the Kelvin street intersection she looked to her right and could see no traffic. She then looked to the left. (One could not see traffic coming on the left until one was actually on the intersection). She sounded the horn. Looking to the left she saw the lights of an approaching car. She attempted to apply her brakes but it was too late, and she saw that a collision could not be avoided. Her car was struck, carried across the road and turned completely round, facing east. She would say that Walker’s car was travelling at about 25 miles an hour. She heard no horn sounded from the other car. Her speed coming on to the intersection was about 15 miles an hour. The front of Walker’s car seemed to strike the side of her car, near the front. “NO OTHER CAR PASSED” To Mr Russell: She did not pass any other car between the Deveron street and Kelvin street intersection. Ronald Poole, a salesman employed by Calder Mackay Company Ltd., said he was driving his own car north along Kelvin road and at the moment the ollision occurred he was approximately opposite Eardly Bell’s service station in Kelvin street. He heard the crash and saw the two cars. The car driven by Mrs McKnight had been turned completely round. It seemed to him that Mrs McKnight’s car was at least twothirds of the way across the intersection when he first saw it. The corner on Mrs McKnight’s left was practically “blind” and the corner on her right was not much better. To the Magistrate: He could not remember definitely whether Walker’s car had passed his. The defendant, a motor-vehicle contractor, said in evidence that, he was travelling along Kelvin street at 25 to 28 miles an hour between intersections, slowing down to 15 miles an hour at the intersections. There were no cars or car lights visible when he looked to the right at the Yarrow street intersection. He looked to the left for tram-cars and then looked again to the right. He saw a car only a few yards away and applied his brakes. Mrs McKnight’s car struck his car on the right front wheel, the hub cap being buckled. The cars swung together and his car stopped across the tram lines. He moved it clear of the lines before he got out. Charles James Lowery, motor assessor, gave evidence of examining the scene of the accident about half an hour after the accident. There was one very definite mark on the bitumen between the tram rails. He also gave details of damage to the cars. EVIDENCE OF PASSING Robert Kidd, a school teacher, said he was driving a car down Yarrow street towards the city on the evening of the accident. Between the Deveron street and Kelvin street intersections a car overtook and passed him, and swung back into line in front of his vehicle. He thought its speed was highly excessive. At the corner of Kelvin street the car collided with another car which came from the left. Cross-examined by Mr Hewat the witness said he saw the accident quite clearly. He would be about a chain and a-half, or perhaps two chains, east of the Kelvin street corner when it occurred. He was overtaken bv the plaintiff’s car when his car was about two chains from the intersection. When the car passed his he would be travelling at 30 miles an hour. The car resumed its correct side of the road about one and a-half chains from the comer, said the witness. He estimated its speed at about 40 miles an hour. He did not observe any slackening of speed over the intersection. In reply to a question by the Magistrate Kidd said fie did not know either

of the parties. The Magistrate said that all the evidence pointed to excessive speed by one of the parties. There was no evidence of speed on the part of the defendant. He accepted Kidd’s evidence that the plaintiff’s car was travelling at a fairly high speed. The plaintiff would therefore be non-suited. Costs were awarded the defendant.