HUTT ROAD COLLISION
INTOXICATED MOTORIST FINED £2O LICENSE SUSPENDED FOR SIX MONTHS Ernest William Armstrong, an insurance agent, aged 4G, was fined .£2O, and had Ins driver's license suspended for six months by Mr. W. G. Kiddell, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday for being found in charge of a motor-car while in a state of intoxication on the Hutt Hoad on the night of February 16. Accused, who pleaded guilty,, was represented by Mr. A. B. Sievwriglit. Sub-Inspector Lander, who prosecuted stated that at about 10.30 on the night in quesHon, Armstrong was driving his car, containing a man and three women passengers, from Petone to Wellington. About a quarter of a mile on the Petone side of Ngahauranga, the car camo into collision with another car travelling in the opposite direction. The latter vehicle swerved violently off the bitumen in order to miss Armstrong's vehicle, which was travelling with only one 'ight on the wrong side of tho road. Accused’s car caught the rear wheel of the other vehicle. After the impact, Armstrong’s car travelled on for some considerable distance across the road, finally running into the hillside and almost capsizing. All the occupants of (ho car were thrown out on the road. Accused was then in a drunken condition. All the others in the car had been drinking, and one of tlie women was drunk. Two other cars travelling towards Petone had experienced narrow escapes from coming into collision with Armstrong’s vehicle, which was being driven very erratically. After the collision. Dr. Park saw accused, and ordered him into hospital, where he remained for. eight days. The doctor told the police that in his opinion accused was intoxicated, and unlit io have charge of a car. Armstrong, who had only come down from Shannon on the morning of the accident, had taken some drink there prior to leaving, lie had also had some drink on arrival in Wellington and before leaving Petone for town that night. Two bottles of beer and a bottle of soda-water were found in his car after the accident. Mr. Sievwriglit, in asking for leniency, stated that although Armstrong had told him he thought ho was quite capable of driving the ear, counsel had persuaded him to plead guilty. Accused had never previously been before the Court, Since lie had been driving a car, during the last nine years, he had covered 100,000 miles without having had one single accident. In convicting the accused, the Magistrate said that as Armstrong had been driving a ear for nine years and bad covered 100,(MX) miles, he should have known the danger of trying to drive while intoxicated. As the Court regarded such offences as serious, a substantial penalty would have to be imposed. To drive a car under the conditions which Armstrong had tried to drive his vehicle was not only a danger to the accused but to other motorists on the road as well. Accused was allowed a fortnight in which to pay his fine.
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Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 129, 29 February 1928, Page 9
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501HUTT ROAD COLLISION Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 129, 29 February 1928, Page 9
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