EXPLANATION ACCEPTED

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 242, 14 October 1942, Page 4

EXPLANATION ACCEPTED

MAGISTRATE DISM^SSES CHARGE. MOTORIST AND PARKED CAR. "I don't see what else you could have done, and I accept your explanation," remarked Mr T. E. Maunsell, S.M., in dismissing a defended charge against Ernest Albert Page of failing to keep to the left of the road, which was heard in the Magistrate's Court this morning. Senior-Sergeant Smyth explained that the case arose from an accident which had oceurred on Murphy's road, Springlands, on September 10. A small boy had. run across the road and had been struck by the defendant's car. On this point Page was not blamed, but the police did say that at the time Page had been driving on the wrong side of the road. In evidence Constable T. J. Miles said he had arrived on the scene of the accident at 3.35 p.m. The point of impact had been eight feet out from the right-hand side of the 24foot wide strip of sealing. Mr A. E. L. Scantlebury explained that the defendant had been driving northwards and had intended to pull in to a place on the left-hand side of the road just past the school. However, a car had been standing parked in the gateway-with its rear protrud - ing on to the road, and he had had to pull out to go round it. The extraordinary thing about it, added counsel, was that nobody else had any recollection of seeing the parked car. However, the extent to which recollections and opinions regarding accidents varied was shown by the fact that three witnesses had said that the small boy ran out from the left-hand side of the road, while the defendant and the boy himself said he ran out from the right. Counsel submitted that defendant had been driving with all due care and attention at the time, and that he had taken a reasonable course in pulling out to pass the other vehicle. The defendant, who gave evidence, was elolfely questioned by the seniorsergeant regarding a statement to the police in which he had said that the rear of the parked vehicle was almost level with the bitumen surface of the road. _V