CLAIM FOR DAMAGES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 178, 30 July 1932, Page 12

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES

MOTOR ACCIDENT SEQUEL COLLISION ON INTERSECTION. Following a collision between a car driven by Robert W. Orton and a motor-cycle ridden by Edward C. Turner, employed by the Wanganui Hospital Board, the board yesterday took action against Orton for the sum of £25 15s in the Magistrate’s Court. Air. J. H. Salmon, S.M., heard the case, which was adjourned. It will be continued this morning. Turner had been in the employ of the board for ten years and it had been necessary to replace him when he had been off, said Leonard Victor Kerby, managing-secretary of the board. The accident had taken place at the intersection of Godwin Crescent and Purnell Street, said Edward Charles Turner, who stated that he had used the motor-cycle in the case for five years on board business. He was travelling along Godwin Crescent at 15 miles an hour, and looked to right and left before crossing the intersection. He saw a car coming, but remembered no more. He knew then he could not avoid a collision. His brakes were in good order. When in hospital he had been seen by Orton, who had said he would fix everything, and also told the witness not to say anything about speed. The cycle would not do more than 25 miles an hour.

Turner’s cycle was on its right side, said Henry Sergeant, constable, stationed at Gonville. It appeared that the cycle had been dragged for 28 feet along the road from the point of impact. A few feet from the point of impact the witness had seen drag marks of a car. When Orton returned to the scene of the accident, . witness pointed out the score marks to him. Orton denied that the accident occurred where the score marks commenced, and said it had occurred some 12 feet further on. Witness questioned Orton why ho did not give way to traffic- on his right and he said: 4 ‘What can a man do when a motor-cycle is coming at about 40 miles an hour?” Orton said he was not going fast. Walter James Wood said he was cycling up Purnell Street, on the day of the accident and his attention was drawn to the mishap by the peculiar position of the car. The motor-cycle was under the front of the car and Turner was leaning against a post. There was a deep groove in the road which gradually eased off to where the car had stopped. It looked as if the pedal of the motor-cycle had been dragged along the road. James Ashcroft, motor engineer, said he had attended to Turner’s motorcycle three weeks before the accident. He gave it as his opinion that the machine would not do over 30 miles an hour. He saw the machine after the accident and it looked as if it had been dragged along the road. Robert W, Orton, defendant, said he was driving his car in Purnell Street, with him as passenger, was Air. C. F. Treadwell. He approached the intersection about 15 miles an hour on his correct side of the road. As he drove on to the intersection he saw Turner on his wrong side of the road, travelling between 30 and 40 miles an hour. Witness applied his brakes and swerved to the left. On getting out of his car witness said the cycle was partially under the front of the car. Mr. Treadwell attended to Turner, while witness rang for the ambulance.

Witness said he saw Turner on the night of the accident and told him not to worry, but he did not mention about not saying anything to the police about speed. Witness said he covered about 20,000 miles a year in a car, and had never had a collision before. After the scene of the accident had been inspected by the magistrate the hearing of the case was adjourned to this morning.