DECISION UPHELD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1033, 25 July 1930, Page 12

DECISION UPHELD

MOTORISTS MUST WATCH “BUND SIDE” CYCLIST KNOCKED DOWN Upholding the decision of Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., in finding that H. S. Canham was negligent in colliding with a cyclist, who was on his left as he turned into the kerb, the Chief Jgstice, in the Supreme Court this morning, dismissed an appeal by Canham against the magisterial decision. The accident occurred iu Broadway, Newmarket, the cyclist, who was between the kerb and the lorry, being caught between a car parked on the roadside and the lorry as it turned into the kerb. The point at issue was the magistrate’s interpretation of the by-law requiring vehicles to keep as near as practicable to the left. Mr. Northeroft contended that there was no liability on the driver of the motor-lorry to watch to his left—his “blind side”—in moving closer to the kerb. For the respondent. Mr. Towle maintained that the Motor Regulations required vehicles not to be loaded to the extent that the driver’s vision was obscured on either side. In his decision the Chief Justice stated that he considered the appellant had been negligent in two ways —firstly, the vehicle was loaded in contravention of the Motor Regulations, and that the driver’s view to the left was obscured in breach of the by-law. According to the evidence the driver of the lorry did not wait until he had passed the line of parked cars at the kerbside before turning into his left, he said. His Honour did not altogether agree with the reasons for the magistrate's con* elusions, although he considered that his decision was correct.