SOUTH CANTERBURY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18414, 22 June 1925, Page 14

SOUTH CANTERBURY.

TIMARU. Social and Personal. Commander the Hon. Guy Stopford, Mount Cook on Thursday, and after spending Friday with Mrs Melville i Jameson (Otumarama), left ou Saturday to join the Rotorua for England. Mr and Mrs George Andrews (Evans street) motored back from Dunedin on Thursday. Miss Marion Hay (Sefton street) lias returned from Christchurch. Miss Moya Taylor (Woodlands road) lias returned from Ohristchurch. Mrs Benton, who has been staying with her mother. Mrs Armstrong (Chalmers street), returned to Christcliurph on Friday. The engagement is announced of Marv eldest daughter of the late Mr and' Mrs M. O'Meeglian, to James, second eldest son of Mr and Mrs T. W. Lynch, of Timaru. The Weatlier. Seven degrees of frost were recorded in Timaru on Saturday morning, and the day was clear and windless. fi The Headlights Problem. Glaring headlight?, or headlights which were apparently glariDg, resulted in the death of Mrs Broad, said Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., in giving his finding at the adjourned inquest into the death of Jessie Beadio Broad on Saturday. Deceased died as a result of a motor accident near the Otaio bridge on the night of May 24th. The Coroner added a rider to the effect that the headlights of all oars should be examined by some experienced mechanic with the object of preventing the lights being so set as to throw diffused rays. Giving evidence at the inquest, Dorothy McKeo, district Plunket nurse, Waima'te, sai(l that she was returning to Waimate from Esk Valley on the night of the accident. When south of the Otaio bridge, she saw another car approaching. The approaching car dimmed its lights, aud witness did likewise. Witness was quite familiar with the road, but after dimming her own lights she remarked to her companion that she could not see the road, as it was so dark. A few seconds later she thought something was wrong, because the other car did not appear to get any nearer. She then remarked to her companion that the other ear uftist have gone over a culvert, and hurried to where the car had gone over. Seeing what had happened, witness went for assistance.

" To the Coroner: She was travelling about 20 miles an hour, and was obliged to slow down, having dimmed her lights in order to see the road. She had driven a good deal at night, and made a practice of dimming her lights. In her opinion, had they both kept their lights full on, the accident would not have happened. It was because they were both thrown into partial darkness that the accident happened. John McKim, omnibus engineer to the Timaru Borough Council, stated that he had been driving motors for about; 20 yegrs under all weather conditions. He considered dimming headlights on a country road a dangerous practice. It was unnecessary provided the headlight? were properly focussed and thrown on to the road. In the case of unfocussod lights he considered dimming move dangerous still. The whole trouble, to his mind, lay in the untrue setting of lights. One would be thrown on to the road and the other into the air. It was usually accepted that at a distanco of •50 yards there should be no beam of light higher than 3ft 6in. In Teply to Mr Middlcton, witness said that cars rarely reduced speed when lights were dimmed. They went on at the same pace under the altered conditions. Another trouble was the change between full on and dim, which was too quick and too great. Patrick I»nwne,v. taxi-driver, stated that he had been driving for 14 years, ana he considered the' dimming of tho lights a'darger under some conditions. When an approaching car failed to dim the only way was to slow down and put one's head out of tho car to watch the road. In his opinion the difference between full on and dim was too great. There should be a light between the two.

The Coronpr said the accident raise J once more a question that had been agitating the minds of motorists for years, and he had hoped as a result of the accident to solve the problem, but it seemed beyond them. < The problem of glaring headlights, or headlights which we're apparently glaring, resulted in the death of Mrs Broad. It was known that the change from light to darkness caused temporary blindness, just as did a bright light striking the eye.' Miss' Meldrum probably pulled over to avoid the lights, and the dangerous angle where the accident happened caused her to pull over too far. Hp did not..think there was negligence on the part of either Miss Meldrum or Nurse McKee. The accident was one of the inevitable happenings falling or. mctorists, and although many were the result of negligence, he was satisfied that both ears were driving slowly. In this case he found that the deceased met her death on the Otaio-Timaru road, death being due to 'a. fracture of the base of the skull, accidentally received was. riding overturning in a culvert as a result of a car in-which deceased south of the Otaio bridge. The Coroner expressed pleasure that the local authorities had taken steps to widen the culvert.

The following rider was added:—"l am satisfied from the evidence, and from my own experience, that the headlights of all cars should be examined by some experienced mechanic, appointed by the licensing authorities, with the object of preventing the lights being so set as to throw the diffused rays, and I am of opinion that such lights should bo so constructed that at a distance of 40 or 50 yards a beam of light should show at no greater height, than 3ft 6in. In the interest of public safety, it is necessary that the question of seeing that this is not contravened should rest on the shoulders of an individual appointed by the local authority."