MOTORISTS’ OFFENCES

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1934, Page 2

MOTORISTS’ OFFENCES

“DELIBERATELY ACCELERATED.” RIGHT-HAND RULE DISREGARDED. Cases arising out of breaches of the motor regulations and by-laws were dealt with in the New Plymouth Police Court yesterday by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M. Arising out of a collision at the intersection of Vivian and Dawson Streets between two cars driven by women, Marion Turner, an Auckland motorist, was fined £2 and 15s costs on a charge of failing to give way to the right. Mr. Gregory, on behalf of Mrs. Turner, said that the offence was not of a serious nature. The driver’s view was obscured and a glancing blow had resulted, the car coming to a standstill against a concrete wall. He asked that the information be dismissed on account of the age of the driver, who had had five years’ experience of city driving. It was essential that the right-hand rule should be observed, and it was necessary to make the penalty severe in cases where the rule was disregarded, said Mr. Woodward. A fine of 30s and an order to pay 19s costs was made against Ronald B. Gray, who was charged with leaving a motor-lorry on the near side of a tram within a tram’s length of a tram stop. Gray did not appeal". Constable Lincoln said the lorry was left in Devon Street on November 15 in „uch a way that while a tram was at the stop vehicular traffic was forced to go past on the right of the tram. He had watched the lorry for some time. The driver arrived in a taxi-cab driven by Jack Moore. Moore left the taxi and droVe the lorry to a nearby garage. He returned later and drove the taxi back. Later Gray drove the lorry back to Okato.

To Sergeant Clist Constable Lincoln said that earlier it had come to his knowledge that Gray was under the influence of liquor. Had he attempted to drive the lorry away he would have been arrested on another charge.

Sergeant Clist said that when interviewed Gray denied instructing Moore to remove the lorry.

Arthur John Moore said that Gray had instructed him to take the lorry to the garage but had not said where it Was. He knew the lorry and saw it outside a picture theatre. Gray had had a few “spots” but was not what one might call “tight.”

Saying that he was unaware that one of his headlights was defective, John Daisley, a motor mecharxic, pleaded guilty to driving a motor-car through Devon Street at 11.5 p.m. on November 10 with only one headlight on. Daisley said that the following day he noticed the defective headlamp and immediately effected repairs. He was convicted and ordered to pay costs amounting to 10s. “BACK SEAT DRIVERS.” Admitting that he had been influenced by a “back seat driver,” Percy Hoby pleaded guilty to failing to give way to a trameax" at a Morley Street intersection. Visibility was not very good and he had looked to the right and heard a tram and intended making a turn when fellow passengers urged him to go straight across, said Hoby. He applied his brakes and although he heard the tram he did not see it. “It appears to be a case of two drivers in one car,” said Sergeant Clist. It was not a case of failing to observe the rule as in a previous case, said Mr. Woodward. There was no doubt that Hoby was influenced by “back seat drivers.” He would be fined 10s and 13s costs.

On the information of Constable Mitchell, Thomas Wilfred Rowe, who did not appear, was charged with driving in Devon Street on November- 12 in a manner that 'might have been dangerous to the public, and was fined 30s aixd ordered to pay 10s costs. It was stated that Rowe had deliberately accelerated So as to cross the Devon and Currie Street intersection before two municipal buses, which were approaching from the bus stop and were about to turn into Currie Street. Rowe’s speed was estimated at 35 miles an hour. As a warning Robert Darcy Candish was fined 10s and ordered to pay 10s costs on a charge of operating a motorlorry on a section of the Carrington Road between the Momona and Timaru Streams, which on the recommendation of the Public Works Department had been declared closed by the Taranaki County Council. Candish said that the owner of the property from which he carted wood had given him to understand that he held written authority to use the road. He had used the road only on the one occasion.

Mr. R. Area, county inspector, said the property cwner had permission to use a light truck on the road as a means of access to his property. Candish’s lorry did not come under the authority given the owner.