NEGLIGENT DRIVING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19347, 30 June 1925, Page 11

NEGLIGENT DRIVING

NEARLY AN ACCIDENT. KAI IWI FARMER FINED. A charge of negligently driving a motor car on the Great North-West Road was preferred against Charles O’Reilly, a Kai Iwi farmer, at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Mr. Graham, who appeared for the defendant, entered a plea of guilty. Tho facts of the case, as submitted for the prosecution by Senior-Sergeant Lopdell, were that on the date of the offence the defendant came round a corner with his car fully loaded with passengers and met a lorry. O’Reilly endeavoured to manoeuvre between the lorry and the bank, and in so doing pursued a course on his wrong side, the result being that both vehicles met in collision and were damaged in consequence. According to the senior-ser-geant, the defendant was travelling at 1 a fair speed at the time. On behalf of his client, Mr. Graham informed the Court that tho corner in question was part of a dangerous piece of road which was banked in formation to permit of traffic negotiating it. He submitted that O’Reilly was not speeding. When he first observed the other vehicle he suddenly realised that if he turned to his right side he would go over the bank and possibly kill his passengers. Defendant had at the moment decided that it was better to go into the bank on the one side rather than over that on the other. His client was willing to meet the expenses of the damage to the other machine, while in any case a matter of £6O or £7O would be necessary to repair his own car. As regards the competency of O’Reilly to drive a car, counsel handed in letters testifying to this fact—a fact that the prosecution did not hold in dispute. The Magistrate, in taking all tho circumstances into consideration, imposed a penalty of £5, with Court costs 7s.