TRAFFIC CONTROL.

Wairarapa Age, 10 March 1934, Page 5

TRAFFIC CONTROL.

REGULATIONS & “DANGEROUS DRIVING. IMPORTANT POINTS RAISED. Questions of considerable importance lo motorists and the public were raised at the hearing, before Mr. J. Miller, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, of a case in which H. G'. Hughan was charged with driving across the Short iStreet intersection in a manner which, having regard to all tl\e circumstances, was or might have been dangerous to the public. Mr. C. C. Marsaek appeared for Hughnn and Mr. H. M. Douglas for the Borough Council. Mr. J. McGregor, Borough Traffic Inspector, by whom the information was laid, estimated that Hughan was driving at 35 miles an hour. Hughan himself put his speed at about 23 miles an hour and his evidence on this point was supported by that of passengers in his car. Mr. Marsaek pointed out that the charge against his client was brought under the Motor Regulations (No. 15) and was very much more serious than one of failing to observe a local by-law. Under the local by-law that formerly ruled, the offence of driving across an intersection at more than the permitted speed would have been comparatively trivial. The regulation mentioned provided that anyone approaching a blind intersection at more than fifteen miles an hour should be held to have driven in a manner dangerous to the public unless he proved the contrary. The penalty provided on conviction (under Section 28 of the Motor Vehicles Act) was imprisonment not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding £lOO. Where a speed of fifteen miles an hour had been exceeded, the onus was wholly on the defendant proving that these penalties had not been incurred.- A blind intersection was defined as one at which a motorist from a distance of 90 feet, could not see other traffic approaching from a distance of 90 feet along the intersecting street or road. Practically any intersection in a town was blind except where there were vacant sections on the eornero. In this case, counsel stated, his client had admitted frankly driving at more than the permitted speed, but there no question of dangerous driving. The car was a new one with thoroughly efficient brakes, controlled by a comtetent driver, who was well able to pull the vehicle up in its own length. The fact should be better and more widely understood than it was that anyone against whom there was evidence of what would formerly have been the trivial by-law offence of exceeding the permitted speed in approaching a street intersection, was liable to be convicted of the serious offence of dangerous driving—an offence in much the same category as that of being in charge of a motor vehicle while intoxicated. It might be said without exaggeration, Mr. Marsaek observed, that every motorist exceeded the permitted speed across intersections every time he took his car out.

Having heard evidence, the Magistrate accepted the view that the defendant had not driven in a manner dangerous to the public and dismissed the charge.