Collision With Safety Zone Leads To Charge Of Intoxication

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 October 1948, Page 2

Collision With Safety Zone Leads To Charge Of Intoxication

When a motor-car driven by Peter Augustus Healey, tobacconist, aged 61, colliued with a safety zone in victoria Avenue early on Sunday, morning it attracted the attention of Constable L. F. Miles, who subsequently noticed that Healey was under the influence of liquor and took him to the Central Police Station. This was told before Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., in the Magistrates Court, Wanganui, yesterday, when Healey admitted being intoxicated while in charge of a motor-car. He was lined £2O, and his driver’s licence was cancelled for 12 months. Senior-Sergeant F. Culloty, who prosecuted, said that Constable Miles was on duty in Victoria Avenue at 2.15 a.m., when he saw a car travelling toward St. John’s Hill collide with a safety zone opposite the Imperial Hotel. The car had apparently come from Guyton Street. Constable Miles spoke to defendant and asked him to walk back to the safety zone to ascertain if there was any damage. The constable noticed, however, that defendant was unsteady on his feet and that his speech was slurred. He said he was at a party and had six whiskies. He admitted being under the influence of liquor. Senior-Sergeant Culloty added that at 2.50 a.m. defendant was examined by Dr. D. W. McGregor, who certified that he was unfit to drive a motor vehicle.

Mr. B. C. Haggitt submitted that defendant had been driving a car for more than 21 years and had never been charged previously with intoxication or any motoring offence. That the degree of intoxication was fairly slight was indicated by the medical report. Tests were carried out by defendant fairly satisfactorily. At 4.10 a.m, defer dant was examined by another doctor, who certified that he was fit to drive a car. Dr. McGregor, in his report, referred to an illness which defendant had had three months previously. It was probable, counsel added, that this illness, together with fatigue, had accentuated the effect of the liquor which defendant had consumed. Senior-Sergeant Culloty said that apart from breaches of the Gaming Act, nothing was known against defendant. The magistrate referred to the time which hud elapsed between the accident at the safety zone and the two medical examinations. It indicated (hat, defendant was recovering rapidly and that the degree of intoxication was worse at the time of his arrest. Defendant was fined £2O and was also ordered to pay medical expenses, £! Is.