EXCESSIVE SPEED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 191, 13 August 1931, Page 7

EXCESSIVE SPEED.

Circumstances Can Alter Cases. JUDGE’S DIRECTION. (Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, August 13. In his summing up to the jury in the Supreme Court, in an action for damages arising out of a motor collision, the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) directed the jury that because a motorist might have been travelling at a high speed it did not necessarily follow that he was driving in a negligent manner. His Honor said he did not think it proper, whether in the case of a Judge or jury, to jump to conclusions too quickly about excess of speed, because, after all, there might be certain circumstances and conditions under which a speed of 45 or 50 miles an hour would not be regarded as excessive. On the other hand there might be other circumstances and conditions where fifteen miles an hour would be excessive, so it was not fair to a motorist to jump to conclusions that he was negligent simply because _he might be travelling at a high speed* His Honor said he was not at all sure that there were not as many accidents, if not more, caused by persons travelling at a low' speed than by persons travelling at a high speed. . . . It well might be that there were more accidents caused by negligence at bends, the cutting of corners and by motorists cutting in between two cars ahead, than merely by high-speed driving.