“ERROR OF JUDGMENT”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1938, Page 8

“ERROR OF JUDGMENT”

LORRY DRIVER FINED. SCHOOL CHILDREN IN DANGER. A fine of £2 and 10s costs was imposed on Eugene Breen when he appeared in the Masterton Magistrate’s Court this morning before Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M., charged with driving a motor-lorry without giving reasonable consideration to other users of the highway. Mr H. Mackenzie Douglas, who conducted the prosecution, said defendant had driven his lorry through a line of * children from the Lansdowne School who were crossing Te Ore Ore Road at right angles in charge of teachers. The headmaster had put up his hand for defendant to stop, but he did not do so. The line had broken and the children had scattered. The danger of defendant’s action lay in the indecision of young children. Mr J. Macfarlane Laing, who appeared for defendant, said his instruc- ■ tions were that defendant had pulled his lorry almost to a standstill, but when the children broke the line and scattered to either side of the road he thought that it was an instruction from the teachers and had proceeded in a low gear through the gap made. His client had only committed an error of judgment. A conviction and fine was imposed as stated above.