SUN BLINDNESS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20951, 2 November 1939, Page 6

SUN BLINDNESS

MOTORIST’S DUTY SHOULD SLOW DOWN •' If a driver is blinded by the sun he has no right to carry on at 25 miles an hour,” said Mr S. L. Paterson, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Hamilton, to-day when the defence of sun-blindness was raised in the case in which Andrew George Sutherland, a bank clerk, of Cambridge, was charged with negligently driving a motor-cycle on the Hamilton-Cam-bridge Road on October 2. The charge arose out of an accident at Hillcrest when a woman was knocked from her cycle and was injured. Defendant, who pleaded not guilty, was represented by Mr J. F. Strang. The case for the police was conducted by Senior-Sergeant G. H. Lambert. Mrs Olive Wilhelmina Tristram, of Knighton Road said that on the evening of October 2 she was cycling towards Hamilton from Hillcrest, and was travelling on the left-hand edge of the bitumen. She heard a motor-cycle coming behind her and remained on the edge of the bitumen. She did not waver or swerve from her course, but she was struck from behind and did not remember any more. In her opinion the visibility was good at the time. Constable A. Gudsell read a statement in which defendant stated he was dazzled by the sup as he rode along the road. He had to focus his eyes on the road a short distance ahead of him and Miss Tristram was only about four feet away when he saw her. He was travelling at about 25 miles an hour and applied hand and foot brakes as soon as he saw the cyclist. Came Suddenly Into View “ The matter to be considered by the Court is that of sun-blindness,” said Mr Strang, when opening the case for the defence. “ If he were blinded by the sun he had no right to carry on at 25 miles an hour,” said the magistrate. “ The position is that the sun came suddenly into view from behind a hedge,” said Mr Strang. “It is true that Sutherland did not see the cyclise until he was within a few feet of her, but, leaving out the special circumstances, Sutherland was going at a reasonable speed. He throttled down his machine as soon as he was affected by the sun. Hed it been a dull day he would have seen the cyclist.” “ If a prudent motorist were driving along a road where the sun came and went on account of the nature of the landscape, he should be on the look-out for it, said the magistrate. :st because a person was blinded ae was not given a free license to kill anybody.

Sutherland gave evidence that he was travelling at about 25 miles an hour just before the accident. The sun struck his eyes and he did not see Mrs Tristram until he was only a few feet away. He thought he swerved to avoid her.

Norman George Sutherland, father of defendant, said that a few days after the accident he visited the scene and took note of the manner in which the sun suddenly came into view from behind a hedge and blinded the onlooker. Defendant was fined £1 and costs.