LETTER

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 4, Issue 5, 1 July 1986, Page 2

LETTER

Dear Sir, 1 was at home on Saturday afternoon 7 June when ! heard a screech of tyres followed by the noise of a collision -or explosion. It sounded close. On going into the street to see what had happened I was surprised to see smoke rising from as far away as the intersection of Clyde Street and the Raetihi Road (SH49) a distance of half a kilometre (3 blocks) froni my home. When 1 drove down to the intersection 1 realised that there had been a collision between two cars ... the 'smoke' I had seen was from burning rubber! The 35m long skid marks on road ran straight and even from about level with the entrance to the hotel carpark to the point of impact at the intersection. In last week's Bulletin 1 read of a case where a driver who had been charged with careless driving was fined $ 1 40 ... he suffered no other penalty. Upon making enquiries as to the reason for the lightness of this sentence 1 learnt that the driver in this case has explained, through his legal counsel, that oneof his wheels had 'locked' on braking and that his vehicle was travelling at 'about 5km/ h at the point of impact. Judging from what I saw and heard from half a kilometre away on that Saturday afternoon I can only conclude that it as another and quite separate incident from the one reported in last week's Bulletin.

Argus,

Ohakune