DRIVER FALLS ASLEEP

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 980, 24 May 1930, Page 6

DRIVER FALLS ASLEEP

FiNED £2 FOR NEGLIGENCE HIT HUTS ON ROADSIDE Press Association, BLENHEIM, Friday. A novel defence was set up by Mr. A. A. Macnab, in the Magistrate’s Court at Pioton, when he appeared for Mervyn Albert Barry, who pleaded not gunty to tn© charge of having driven a motor-car on me Blenheim-.fieton liuaa Qn April 2b in a negligent manner, which, having regard to ail the. circumstances, might nave been dangerous to the public. The prosecution was a sequel to an accident when defendant's car crasned into two huts on the side of the highway. Counsel said lie understood that the case for the police would disclose that defendant in a statement to the police, said he nodded at the wheel, and in that second, swerved to one side ana hit an obstacle that was piaced on tiie road. No one was injured but Barry reported the matter to the police. Counsel submitted that fur a man to drive negligently there must be some conscious act on iiis part which caused or was negligence. if a man momentarily nodded to sleep, Li lie was suddenly overcome by something over which he had no control, he couid not be guilty of negligence. He couid trace 'no otiler case in which a man had been prosecuted for negligence because he nad momentarily lanen asleep. CAUSE OF ACCIDENT In deciding to enter a conviction, the magistrate said it was clear that the fact that the defendant went to sleep caused the accident. “It may be that in the case of a person suitering from some sudden physical infirmity that results in his car getting out of control it could not be said to oe negligence,” he added. “This is not a case of physical infirmity. The man went to sleep. If I accept that as a defence and dismiss the information, then apparently I shall in effect be holding that it is quite permissible for the driver of a car to go to sleep, and let his car get out of control. That being so, 1 should be nothing more or less than a contributing factor toward highways becoming dangerous places. lam not disposed to take that course, if people drive cars they must keep awake. If they go to sleep they do so at their own peril.” A fine of £2 and costs was inflicted.