FINED FOR NEGLIGENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1032, 24 July 1930, Page 16

FINED FOR NEGLIGENCE

MOTOR-CYCLIST INJURED ACCIDENT AT HOROTIU From Our Own Correspondent HAMILTON, Wednesday. Following an accident on the Main South Road near Horotiu on the evening of June 30, James Stanley Fyffe Clemett, farmer, Te Akau, was charged in the Hamilton Magistrate's Court today with being intoxicated while in charge of a car, and with negligent and dangerous driving. Mr. N. S. Johnson pleaded not guilty on defendant’s behalf.

Senior-Sergeant Sweeney said defendant left hl3 home at Te Akau at 2 p.m. on June 30, and motored to Waingaro! and then to’ Ngaruawahia At eight o’clock that evening he was arrested in Hamilton in an intoxicated condition. It was later learned that a man, Arthur Richardson, had been knocked down by a motor-cat at Horotiu and seriously injured. Arthur Richardson, of Vermont Street, Ponsonby, said that he left Pukekohe at noon on June 30 for Hamilton on a motor-cycle, which broke down. He was walking towarc Hamilton on the left-hand side of the road, when he was knocked unconscious. A man found him and he was taken to the hospital. His leg and head were severely cut and he was still an inmate of the hospital.

Constable S. Brown said he visited the scene of the accident and took possession of the lamp lound on the road. He returned to Hamilton and found Clemett in an intoxicated condition in Victoria Street. A hospital nurse said a piece of glass was found in the wound in Richardson's head, similar to the pieces found on the road. Defendant said he had two glasses of whisky at Waingaro and three glasses of the same liquor at Ngaruawahia. He was quite sober. He had no knowledge of striking Richardson and he did not know that his parking lamp was missing until next day. Three newsboys said they helped Clemett to push his car to the garage. They considered he was sober. Norman Delaney, with whom Clemett spent over an hour after his arrival at Hamilton, said Clemett’s condition was normal. The magistrate said the evidence did not support the charge of intoxication and he dismissed the information. He was quite satisfied the defendant struck Richardson, the most conclusive evidence being that a piece of lamp glass was found in a wound in the injured man's head. Clemett’s omission to see Richardson was due to negligence. Defendant was fined £5 and nis driver’s licence was suspended for three months. The charge of dangerous driving was dismissed.