MOTORIST DID NOT STOP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17526, 1 May 1925, Page 7

MOTORIST DID NOT STOP.

CYCLIST KNOCKED OVER. NEGLIGENCE PROVED. In the Magistrate's Court to-day, before Mr W. Meldrum. S.M., Thomas Capstick was charged with negligently driving a motor vehicle on Ferry Koad on March 22 last, and with failing to stop after an accident. Defendant, for whom Mr Ellingworth appeared, pleaded not guilty. He was alleged to have knocked down a cyclist. Frederick Beccondalc said that he thought defendant was travelling about twenty-five miles an hour at the time of the accident. Immediately afterwards. however, he put on “more juice ” and went speeding awaf at about forty miles an hour. Defendant, in the box, said that the first intimation he received of the accident was when he received a letter from Jones seven days later. The following week he received a letter from Baldwin. He was on his way home from Kaiapoi at the time the mishap was said to have, happened, but he had no knowledge of the accident whatever before he received the letter. He would say that he was travelling at about fifteen miles an hour at the time. That, however, was only a guess. His car was a sedan, and being closed in would lessen his chances of hearing a crash had there been one. It was not right that he had been travelling at forty miles an hour. “ You couldn t hold her down at that pace,” he said. He had had some trouble with his exhaust pipe: it always made a lot of noise. There were no marks on the car after the accident was alleged to have occurred. He may have dimmed his lights, but he did not remember it. Questioned by Sergeant Roach, defendant said that he had been driving a car for six years. It was not true that he deliberately swerved after the accident and accelerated his speed. He had made no stops on the journey from Kaiapoi. He left Kaiapoi about 11 p.m. The Magistrate : You were travelling, of course, pretty late. Were you sleepy?—Oh. no.

Charles Lewis Stapeley said that on the night of the accident he was riding with his brother along Ferry Road when he heard a crash, and looked around. He saw that there had been an accident, and, as the motorist did not look as if he were going to pull up, witness tookkhis number. When he heard the crash, the car would be about three chains away. He did not hear the motorist sound his horn at Fitzgerald Avenue. After he took defendant's number, he went back to where the mishap had occurred. He was fairly sure that the® defendant accelerated after the mishap, but he would not swear to it.

* The Magistrate said that it was hard for him to believe the evidence for the defence. On the evidence before him. he must hold that the car caused the accident, and that it was negligently driven. It was evidently going at a greater speed than fifteen miles an hour, although not forty, as stated by a witness for the'prosecution. On the first charge, defendant was convicted and fined £1 and costs, and oil the second £2 and costs.