MUST KEEP LOOK-OUT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 204, 17 November 1927, Page 18

MUST KEEP LOOK-OUT

PEOPLE WHO RIDE OR DRIVE FAST RACING CYCLIST ACQUITTED Press Association. WANGANUI, Wednesday. “If a man rides or drives fast he has to keep a proper look-out, and the faster he rides the more the onus is on him to exercise care.” This warning to racing cyclists was spoken by Mr. Justice Ostler when Alfred Barnes, a competitor in a cycle road race in August, was charged in the Supreme Court to-day with manslaughter. The charge arose from the death of an elderly woman, who was knocked down during the race. His Honour said thero did not seem to be evidence of criminal negligence and the jury found Barnes not guilty. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr. Cunningham, contended that it was unlawful to ride a bicycle furiously on a country road. Mr. Justice Ostler: Where did you get that from? You mean to say it is unlawful to ride a cycle as hard as you like on a country road, when its maximum speed is about 20 and that of a car 40 miles, and yet an offence for one and not the other? Counsel replied that it was an offence under the Public County Act to ride or drive any horse or vehicle furiously and in England a bicycle was held to be a vehicle. He quoted an English case. His Honour replied that the case was heard in the days when it was necessary to walk with a red flag in front of a vehicle, but they had got long past that stage.