NO OBSTRUCTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 15, 7 October 1929, Page 5

NO OBSTRUCTION.

Witness was going up a slight grade. There was nothing to obstruct the view of the driver of the /truck, but he did not seem to see| ['witness until he wa s right on him. . The speed of the truck was not a safe one for that part of the road. The vehicles collided, and the front sot the truck behind the cab tore the back off the bus. After tipping shis load of metal the driver of the truck came back, but did not reply , when asked why he had not stopped, and said, when the locality of the collision was being discussed, that it happened so suddenly he could not say where it was. surements made by Mr Foley showed that there was a space of twelve ' feet on witness' right which was available for the truck. The bus had been in use £or about fifteen months, and was in splendid order, and a claim of £2q for depreciation was quite reasonable. THE TRUCK'S SPEED. The truck was going at fifteen, to twenty miles per hour. The bus. was regularly used on the run from New' Plymouth to Opuuake, and had to be used in its damaged condition up to twenty days, as no other bus was available. People did not like travelling in the bus, owing- to the broken windows. Cross-examined: At le time of the collision the bus was practically stopped. Witness did not notice that the road wais counter-sunk twelve feet wide, for the reception of metal. After the collision witness looked after a passenger who had receivedl a cut. He did not shift the 'bus. There was no liquor in the bus so far as wit- j nes s kijew. The man who had helped Foley to take measurements was not under the influence of liquor. soura iiQuoit. ' Leslie Tuck, employed at No, 4 camp, Tangarakau, said he was a passenger on the bus, sitting on one of the back seats. Some of the passengers had had liquor, and witness ' had bad two glasses. The truck; ' was not on its fight course- ailcfi

was going fairly fast. Cross-examined: The driver of the i lorry was not present when measurements -were taken. Witness* tried to trace the wheel-marks of, the two vehicles. ft<>-oxamined: The left wheels of the bus wore right on tho outsidd edge of the road. The lorry passed about two feet from the bank on tho inside of tho road. This was just at the point of impact, At the point t l,e rond was not 'counter-sunk, and the. whol» of th.> surface of the road -I was available f« r "RO-