MOTOR COLLISION.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1922, Page 6

MOTOR COLLISION.

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES. PLAINTIFF’S EVIDENCE FINISHED. The Supreme Court at New Plymouth was again occupied on 1 Saturday in hearing the claim. Eleanor Mary Crofts v. Herbert H. Johnston, for £lOBO 4s as damages arising out of a motor collision on the main road to Urenui, further evidence for plaintiff occupying all the morning, the Court then adjourning till 10 a.m. to-day. Kenneth Finch Kirk, auctioneer, New Plymouth, stated that on the day of the accident he had overtaken the /orry in his car and, while he had sounded his horn, the lorry had not moved off the centre of the road. He had just sufficient room to get past on the right. Just after passing the lorry he sighted Greenwood’s car, but had no difficulty in passing. Tt was quite possible that the lorry driver did not hear his horn owing to the noise of the engine, as they were both then going up hill. To Mr. O’Dea: He had no recollection of massing Putt’s car pn the road after he had left the lorry, and he did not hear the smash.

Walter Lionel Brown, motor mechanic, New Plymouth, stated that on the day of the accident he was driving a car from New Plymouth to Urenui. and arrived on the scene after the collision had occurred. To get past he had to leave the metal and go down on to the clay over a small embankment. The lorry was across the road with the head towards the sea, and there were no signs of either vehicle having -been moved. The rear right wheel was between of the metal and the right edge. The witness corroborated the evidence regarding the distance the log extended fore and aft over the lorry. He considered that the -lorry had been “hogging” the road. The motor ear was across the front of the lorry and appeared to have swerved from itf? correct side of the road. As a motorist he would not like to attempt the same feat at any speed; a narrow car like Greenwood’s would probably capsize. To Mr. O’Dea: The bank was only a slope, but it was an awkward one. Anyone who straddled the bank at thirty miles an hour was taking the risk of a skid. As he was re/urßing to New Plymouth he stopped at the scene again and. while there, a Ford had to get down on to the clay to pass'. TRA'CKS ON THE ROAD: George T. Langley, New Plymouth, said that he arrived on the scene shortly after the accident had occurred. He traced the track of the motor lorry from the brow of the hill to the point of impact. At the brow it appeared to him |to be on the centre of the road and, as jit moved forward, there was inclination for it to move to the left up to a pnirt I about ten yards from the place of im[pact. The right-hand ‘front wheel of the lorry was then about a foot over the centre of the road on the land side. There was then a wheel mark which showed that the lorry .had turned further to the left at an angle of about 25 degrees. The tracks of the lorry did not. indicate that it had passed any ether vehicles between the hill and the point of collision. Where the collision took-place the left front wheel of the lorry ivas just on the edge of the grass; he would judge by the angle at which the vehicle stood that the rear right band wheel would be about the centre or over the centre of the roadway The long timber projected over both ends of the lorry, but he could not say how much. ' He thought the nature of the load would affect the steering of the lorry. Witness estimated the drop of the bank from the metal part of the road to the side track as about three or four feet. With a load on the bank side of his car he would not care to try to negotiate it unless at a very slow pace. In cross-examination, witness said that at no time between the brow of the hill and where the impact took place did the tracks show that the lorrV had drawn further over to its wrong side. It was a gradual incline’ towards the correct side of the road. He could not say if the width of the grass between the metal and the side track was four feet or if it was practically level. In observing the tracks of Greenwood’s car, he saw that it had been well on its correct side some distance back, and then it had turned towards the centre of the road, but witness would not say he had got oyer the centre of the road. When very close up to where the collision took ulace the marSs showed a sharp turn to the right. He thought by continuing towards the centre of the road. Greenwood was inviting the lorry driver to o-ive him more room to pass. ° Mr. Nicholson, for the plaintiff, said that it was admitted by the defence that the driver of the lorry (Campbell) was the servant of the defendant, and that at the time of the collision he was actin* in the course of Kis employment. This concluded the case for the plaintiff. The Court then adjourned.