Magistrate's Court Department’s Weighing Method Held Valid

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 9

Magistrate's Court Department’s Weighing Method Held Valid

The chief mechanical engineer of the industrial development department of the University of Canterbury (Rowland J. Lindsay) was called on by the Transport Department to give evidence in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

A charge of failing to carry a heavy traffic licence on November 23 against Raymond Drinkwater, a builder (Mr G. R. Lascelles) was adjourned to yesterday to enable the department to call expert evidence on its method of weighing vehicles. Mr Lascelles said Drinkwater’s truck was a light one which, together with the load It was carrying at the time, weighed less than two tons. Thus a heavy traffic licence did not have to be carried. He disputed the fact that the total weight of Drinkwater’s truck and its load was in excess of two tons, as the departmental method of arriving at the total weight by combining weights of each axle weighed separately resulted in an incorrect total, said Mr Lascelles. Lindsay said that in no circumstances could the department’s method of weighing give more than the correct weight—it would be slightly under if anything. He considered the method was sound.

Mr K. H. J. Headifen, S.M., said there was a prima facie case and he would impose a nominal fine and grant a certificate saying there had been no attempt to avoid paying the licence fee. Drinkwater was fined £2 on the charge of failing to carry a heavy traffic licence, to which he had pleaded not guilty, and £2 on a charge of having no warrant of fitness on a trailer, to which he pleaded guilty. FINED £46 On six charges of exceeding the axle weight and two charges of exceeding heavy traffic licences, B. J. Hale and Company, Ltd., was fined £5 on each, and on a charge of exceeding the certificate of fitness weight the company was fined £6. Mr R. J. de Goldi entered pleas of guilty to all charges. All the offences concerned loads of logs being carried from Eyrewell between November last year and February. CHARGE DISMISSED Mervyn Isobel Adair, aged 54, a night chef (Mr P. T. Mahan), pleaded not guilty to a charge that she drove a motor-vehicle carelessly in Bealey avenue on October 27, 1985. The charge was dismissed. FOUND DRUNK Charged with being found drunk in a public place on June 8, Patrick O'Reilly, aged 41, was convicted and fined 52, in default three days’ imprisonment. He was a statutory second offender. He did not appear. TRAFFIC CASES

In traffic cases brought by the Transport Department, convictions were entered and fines Imposed as follows: Exceeded 30 miles an hour: Ernest Joseph Petrovic, £10; Roy Leo Armstrong, £2: Joseph Taylor. £3: Ahmad Aycb. £«: lan Alexander McKenzie, £10: Geoffrey Francis Parr. £6: Richard Michael John Breen, £5; Roger Collin Gilmour Curragh, £5: Colin Leonard Giddens, £5; Henry Alfred Holmes. £3: Wayne Robinson Holstein, £5; Maurice Melville Hampton, £5; Merle Evelyn Hubbard, £5: Audrey Annie Huddleston, £3; Thomas Owen O’Brien, £8; Josephine Hesster Parsonsons, £8; Bruce Alexander Ritchie, £6: Reece Frederick Smith, £6; James Shane Ferguson, £5; Joan Isabel Holdsworth, £5: William Arthur Inkpen. £5: Martha Mary Blain, £6: Alistair William Chambers, £6; Brian Robert James Eder, £5: Dereck Edward Friend, £8 10s (no safety helmet, £3); Roger Clifford Gibbs, £10; Thomas Christopher Grigg, £5; William Norman Johnson, £5; Jack Roy Harrington, £6; John Fergus Keen. £8: Robin Allan McGregor, £6 Maurice McKay, £4: Rex John McCauley, £5; Brian Michael Mogridge, £8; Wil-

Ham Kenneth Pollltt, £l2; Michael Richard Priest, £8; Derek Jamison Streeter Scott, £5; lan Gavin Ward, £6; Dennis Leon White, £B.

Exceeding 55 miles an hour: Roger James Burgess, £10; Thomas Charles McGrath, £8; George Arthur Wright, £10; John Hargan. £10: Robert Edward Allan, £8: Robert William Kerrison, £10; Dudley Arthur Pollard, £10; Cedric Lionel Desmond Cole, £lO.

Exceeding axle weight: Transport Cheviot, Ltd., £6; J. Deyell and Company, Ltd., £7; G. McDonald and Sons, Ltd., £5; H. W. Smith, Ltd., £8; Vibrapac Blocks, Ltd., £7.

Exceeding heavy traffic licence: King Brothers, £5; Christchurch Ready Mixed Concrete, Ltd. (exceeding axle weight, £6), £5; E. H. Boyce and Company, Ltd., (exceeding axle weight, £6), £5; David Pattulo, £lO.

Failed to comply with stop sign: John Francis Douglas Green, £4; Richard Harker, £7; Raymond Standish Field, £6; Phillipa Ruth Evans, £6; Stanley Clemont David Darren, £6; Dennis Melville Riley, £6. No warrant of fitness: John Clement Stonyer, £2 (insufficient lights, £6); William Frederick Yates, £3: Warren David Dazell, £4; Reginald Fitzsimon, £2 (failed to produce driver’s licence, £5).

Careless driving: Martin Thomas James Bourke, £10; Peter Richard Williams, £6; Geoffrey Charles Duff, £B, and licence cancelled for two months.

Failed to stop for pedestrian on crossing: Abraham Leonard Talbot, £7. No driver’s licence: Jean Ellen Foster, £5; Leslie Cyril Millan, £5. Failed to keep left: Thomas Victor Sharp, £5; Jocelyn Mary Ball, £B.

No front number plate: Malcolm Alan Turner, £B. Exceeded 30 miles an bour without safety helmet: David George Ellis, £5.

No red rear light on goods service vehicle: Rodger Frederick Cullen, £B. Failed to give way at give way sign: Francis Martin Byrne, £6.

No light on cycle: Michael Anthony Brown, £2 (no red rear reflector, £2).

Insufficient lights: Noel Rob. ert Free, £B.

Opened car door so as to be liable to cause injury: Alice Hahnke, £5.

Cycled on footpath: Russell Oliiver, £7. Crossed against lights: Russell John Thorne, £B. Defective parking brake: Barry Coleridge Hitchcock, £4. No brakes on cycle: Herbert William Frederick Fox, £1 10s (rode cycle more than two abreast, £2).

Parking offence: Peter James Raymond McKay, It. Proceeding from stop sign before way was clear: Vera Waters, £4. Insecure trailer: Alfred Mackley, £2. (Before Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, S.M.) CHARGE DISMISSED Brian Edward Hickey, aged 37, a soldier (Mr L. M. O’Reilly), pleaded not guilty to a charge that on February 20 he failed to keep as far as was practicable to the side of the road on his left. Mr O’Reilly submitted that the charge should have read failing to keep “as near as” was practicable to the side of the road on his left, not “as far as" practicable. After Mr O’Reilly’s submission the Magistrate dismissed the charge after saying that the information had been Incorrectly laid.