POLICE COURT NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, 21 June 1928, Page 11

POLICE COURT NEWS

CASES AGAINST MOTORISTS MORE THAN FIFTY MILES AN HOUR EXCESSIVE SPEED ON MAIN ROAD. Charges against motorists comprised the entire calendar of minor cases brought before Mr. R. W. Tate, S.M., in the Police Court at New Plymouth yesterday. Arising out of a motor accident on May 9. when a young man named Seer, a pillion rider on a motor cycle, was injured when the motor cycle he was on skidded and overturned, Victor Neville Wooldridge, rider of, the motor cycle, was charged with driving the cycle along the South Road at a speed which might have been dangerous to the public. Evidence was given by two motorists whom defendant passed that his speed, in their opinion, was between 40 and 50 miles an hour.

Defendant said that after passing the vehicles he accelerated in order to get out of range of their lights, as they made it difficult for him to see. He was travelling along the road when he suddenly camo upon a horse asleep m the middle of the road. He tried to swerve, and the back wheel skidded, throwing his companion and him off To th§ magistrate defendant said that he would be 17 years of age next week. He had bought the bicycle last November, on the instalment plan. To Senior-Sergeant McCrorie, defendant admitted that in a statement to the constable ho bad said he was travelling at between 50 and GO miles an hour.

In fining, defendant fl, with costs amounting to £3 2e, the magistrate warned him that the fine was a very light one. Next time ho came before the court on a similar charge, he would have his license cancelled.

DRIVING WITHOUT LICENSES. George Edward Laffey, of Wanganui, who drove a car along Devon Rood on May 25 when not in possession of a driver's license, was fined £2 (IOb). It was stated that defendant, who was an inspector of the Royal Assurance Company, told the inspector when accosted, that ho had a current year’s driving license at Wanganui, but investigation in Wanganui failed to confirm this statement. According to the evidence of the official records, defendant’s license had not been renewed. William Alexander Carmichael, an Auckland motor cycle rider who failed to produce hie license when requested to do so on May 25, w r as fined £2 (costs IDs). The inspector stated that defendant bad been given a week to produce his license, but he had failed to do so. For riding a motor cycle along the South Road, near Omata, without a light, Jack Thomas, who pleaded guilty, was fined fl (costs 12s). Defendant said his lamp had been alight, but the strong wind had blown it out. The Bell Block Dairy Company, owners of a motor lorry which was driven by one of the company’s employees when one of its brakes was in a defective condition, were fined £2 (costs 10s). Mr. R. Pepperell, secretary of the company, stated that by resolution of the directors the manager had been instructed to report on the condition of the lorry, and it was the intention of the company to have it overhauled. The magistrate issued a warning that the offence was a serious one. MISCELLANEOUS CASES. P, Roebuck and 0. Lancaster were charged with driving a motor lorry on the Main South Road at night without proper lights. Senior-Sergeant McCrorie, who prosecuted, said that the charges arose as the result of a collision with a motor cyclist. At the time of the collision Lancaster wa-s driving and Roebuck subsequently drove the lorry home. The explanation offered by Lancaster was that the lights had been on a minute or two before the collision, but the gas supply failed. A fine of £2 (costs 17s) was imposed on Roebuck, while Lancaster was convicted and ordered to pay 17s costa. Cases against James Leech and Ruth Jeffries of failing to clear noxious weeds were adjourned for two months in order to give defendants an opportunity of completing the work. The police case against Harold Rufus Bradley was adjourned for a week.