SPEEDING CHARGES

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31119, 23 July 1966, Page 20

SPEEDING CHARGES

Convictions Upheld A final-year Lincoln College student, Clutha Forbes Mackenzie, produced his own mathematical calculations in the Supreme Court yesterday to disprove (he said) the evidence of a traffic officer who had charged him with speeding—at 45 miles an hour on the Main South road at Sockburn, and at 75 miles an hour on Blenheim road, on the night of March 2. Mackenzie (Mr A. Hearn) claimed that Traffic Officer J. E. L. Hume, of the Transport Department, would have had to be travelling at 200 miles an hour in order to have made a U-turn on Springs road and caught him up at the compulsory-stop junction with the Main South road, as he had said. But Mr Justice Wilson told Mackenzie he was not interested in his speed on Springs road, but rather on Blenheim road, where there was clear evidence of his exceeding 55 miles an hour in his sports car.

His Honour, after a rehearing of the charges against Mackenzie, confirmed convictions for exceeding 30 and 55 miles an hour, but reduced four months’ disqualification from driving on the latter charge to six weeks. Mr Hearn had said he could not submit there should be no disqualification, as Mackenzie had five previous convictions for speeding since 1962. His Honour: Seemingly related to this sports car. Mr Hearn: He has decided to dispose of it, sir. Fines of £6 and £lO on the two charges were upheld, but his Honour accepted Mr Hearn’s submission that a first disqualification on a motorist should be “short and sharp,” and that four months’ disqualification on Mackenzie had been excessive.