MOTOR-SMASH RECALLED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 449, 3 September 1928, Page 13

MOTOR-SMASH RECALLED

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES REHEARING BEFORE JUDGE Rehearing of a claim for £IOO general and £57 special 'damages as the result of a motor accident in Beach Road occupied Mr. Justice Reed in the Supreme Court this morning. The plaintiff was John Russell Orford, Post Office Savings Bank clerk, and the defendant the Auckland Electric-Power Board. Mr. W. IT. Cocker, for plaintiff, said the accident occurred on March 11, 1926. In the following September an action was contested in the Magistrate’s Court. Judgment was given by Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., on December 2. In JJune, 1927, an appeal was heard before Mr. Justice Reed, but his Honour; remitted Mr. Cutten’s judgment back to him for a memorandum on certain points. This was duly forwarded but it did not convey the information asked by the judge. The present case was the result. The plaintiff, John Russell Orford, said he was a passenger in a postal van driven by a department driver. They were returning about 1 a.m. from repairing a breakdown, and in Beach Road struck a tar boiler. A motor-car coming fast behind signalled for a passage. The’ van gave room and almost immediately struck the boiler. Witness was in hospital for six weeks with a broken knee-cap and abrasions. He saw no light on the boiler. Charles Alfred Porter, driver of the van, also saw no light on the boiler. The van was travelling at between 20 and 25 miles an hour. Witness swerved slightly to give a following car a passage.’ He received four broken ribs and a split head. Edward Sutton, P. and T. employee, who examined the scene of the accident soon after the smash, found no light on the boiler or near it. He took a lamp from a nearby stanchion. This was out; he lit it, but it failed again, because there was no kerosene. Witness filled it at the P. and T. garage and placed it on the wrecked boiler. Cross-examined by Mr. Rogerson, for the defendant board, witness did not remember seeing broken red glass on the road. % Reginald Robertson Stewart, who picked up the injured men, said that earlier in the evening his car had nearly run into the boiler. It was not lighted. To Mr. Rogerson he admitted having said nothing about his escape to Mr. Cutten. David James Conchie, underground linesman for the Power Board, himself placed a red lamp on the side of the boiler nearest the traffic. It was very rarely that lamps fell off. After the accident witness found the lamp on the ground smashed. To Mr. Cutten, witness said sometimes went out owing to leaky containers. Other witnesses were sure a light had been duly placed upon the boiler. (Proceeding.)