NEGLIGENT DRIVING

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1934, Page 5

NEGLIGENT DRIVING

HEAVY FINE IMPOSED accident on avenue road. MOTORIST WITHOUT LICENSE. “Your client should consider himself fortunate in the issue, for he might at this moment have been standing charged with manslaughter,” said Mr. W. H. Woodward. S.M.. in the New Plymouth Magistrate’s Court yesterday to counsel ■ for Charles Holden Hamerten, who pleaded guilty to charges of negligent driving and with driving without a license. He was fined £lO and costs 10s on the first charge and £1 and costs 10s on the second. Mr. A. C. Fookes appeared for Hamerton... Sergeant S. G. Clist said that at about 10.15 p.m. on September 8 Hamerton drove his car along Avenue Road in the -A direction of New Plymouth. Two men on the left-hand side of the road were walking towards the town. One, A. Mitchell, was wheeling on his right side a bicycle equipped with a light, rear reflector and white mudguard. Hamerten saw the pedestrians but apparently thought they were going to move off the road on to the grass. They did riot do so and Hamerton in swerving to the right to avoid them struck Mitchell, who was rendered unconscious and suffered head injuries. He was removed to the New Plymouth hospital in a serious condition. He was still unable to work. Both men were on their correct side of the road. It was a case of very bad negligence, said Sergeant Clist, Hamerton had all the road to himself as there was no approaching traffic. There was • no need for pedestrians to move off the road on to the grass. Hamerton had intended to defend the case, but pressure of business had made this impossible, said Mr. Fookes. The accident occurred on a clear but very dark night. Avenue Road was a main thoroughfare intersected on one side at intervals by streets. Therefore Hamerton meticulously kept to the left. IDiat he was not driving fast was obvious from the fact that Hamerton had said he was travelling at 18 miles ah hour and a witness had estimated his speed at 20 miles an hour. There was a perfectly formed footpath available for pedestrians and it was not reasonable to expect to find pedestrians on the road. Their proper place was on the footpath. IMPACT WITH PEDESTRIANS. As he approached the intersection of Bell Street, Hamerton caught sight of a car or lorry up Bell Street and at the same instant he saw something on Avenue Road. He gave three blasts of his horn to warn both parties. As the pedestrians took no notice he called out “Get off the road” and at the same time swerved to the right However, he hit Mitchell. The impact was not very great and Hamerton was unaware that anything was wrong until he heard shouts. He then pulled his car well to the left, stopped and returned to the scene of the accident, where, finding Mitchell unconscious, he rendered every assistance possible. “This is just another illustration that while pedestrians have every right to use the road they take a gratuitous risk when they fail to walk on the footpath. If they want to walk on the road they should take every care,” said Mr. Fookes. “Further, they should walk on the right of the road, where they will be in full view of the lights of oncoming traffic. This is not a serious, glaring breach of negligence, but more an error of judgment on the part, of an experienced driver.” Hamerton held a license seven years ago at Palmerston f North, said Mr. Fookes. When he contemplated buying a car Hamerton spoke to the Stratford Borough Council inspector about a license and offered’to submit to a driving test. He was a busy man and was unable to find time for , the test. During the three weeks he had possessed the car a friend had acted as driver for him, but on this occasion he was' not available and Hamerten, called urgently to Stratford, had yielded to the temptation to drive himself. • . “You have put as fair a complexion as possible on a case where the driver actually saw the pedestrians for some ap- , preciable time and had time to give three blasts of his horn, yet hit one of the pedestrians,” said the magistrate. “That Hamerton was travelling at a very moderate speed, which suggests that he was not driving regardless of the public, is in his favour. On. the other hand I cannot in justice do anything but inflict a substantial penalty.”