ACCIDENT REPORTS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1935, Page 4

ACCIDENT REPORTS

POLICE OR TRAFFIC INSPECTOR?

TEST CASE AGAINST CORPORATION. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Whether the bus and tram drivers of the Wellington City Corporation fulfill their obligations under tlie Motor Vehicles Act when they report accidents in which they are involved to traffic inspectors instead of to the police was one of the principal-poir.ls at issue in a case heard by Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court. ?- Edgar Thomas Heyward, a bus driver employed by the Tramway Department of the Wellington City Corporation, who was involved in an accident with a cyclist in Adelaide Road in August, was charged with failing to report an accident involving injury. He pleaded not guilty, and Mr. J. O’Shea, who appeared for the corporation, submitted that the charge should be dismissed because the whole scheme of the Act had been given effect to, the defendant having notified a constable within a reasonable time through another person. The magistrate said it was quite clear that the Statute had not been given effect to in the manner intended. “Within a reasonable time” did not mean within two or three days. As the practice had gone on for so long, according to counsel, the defendant would not be mulcted in a heavy penalty, but woiffd be convicted and ordered to pay costs.