DANGEROUS PRACTICE

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 6

DANGEROUS PRACTICE

SALfe tO INEXPERIENCED RIDERS. motor-cycle vendors blamed. The indiscriminate sale b y mbtor-cyclp vendors of high r powefed machines to youths with little knowledge ofthem use was condemned by Mr. W. H._ Woodward, SM., in the Hawera Magistrates Court yesterday during the heating of a „ case against a youth charged with not carrying a warning device on his machine and with not slowing down to less than 15 miles an hour when within 100 yards of a railway crossing. just previously, Mr. Woodward heard a case against a ybUth charged with negligent driving of a motor-cycle. to both cases, the defendants were in-, vblved in accidents, since which both have been in hospital, one since Novern- • ber 23, and the other since December/. Sergeant j. Henry, Who was profeecutiftg, elicited from. one defendant the that he did not know it Was compulsory UhdOr the regulations to slow down before a railway crossing arid he also did not know that a warning device was required. There had been none bn the machine When he purchased it, he sMd. , “There is tod much of this Sort of thing/’ said Sergeant Henry? “Young men purchase machines ahd ride arbunu the countryside, knowing practically nothing bi the regulations.” Mr. L. Hunt, borough inspector, also spoke bn the danger of the practice, to \ Several instances, he told Mr. Woodward, he had found youths Who had bought ma'chhies nbt properly equipped with horhs or cut-outs and had sent the machines back to the vendors to have the defects remedied. He knew of One instance where a dealer had sold a machine, and the buyer, an inexperienced driver, had immediately set out, despite the fact that the night was particularly wild, to ride to a distant town. It had taken the boy 15 minutes to get out Of the borough. . “These riders are a menace,” said M"' Hunt, “and I consider it should be a . criminal proceeding for vendors to dispense ill-equipped machines to inexperienced drivers.” ■ “I can only say this,” said Mr. Woodward. “If it is possible for you, Mr. Hunt, to bring charges against vendors on these counts,.! shall give heavy penalties. The riders are a menace and I hope the matter pteceives proper publicity?’