FINE INFLICTED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 211, 6 August 1937, Page 9

FINE INFLICTED

DRIVER OF SCHOOL BUS. NEGLIGENCE CHARGE. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHUECH, Aug. 5. Alexander Hugh Miller, driver of the Haw ard on school bus in which several children were seriously injured on May 10, was before the Magistrate’s Court at Culverdeu to-day charged with negligent driving. He was fined £7 and ordered to pay costs, his license being suspended, and he was prohibted from obtaining another until February _ 5, 1939. Miller claimed that the accident was due to a jambing accelerator pedal. Two charge* were preferred against Miller, one of driving negligently in Dalmeny Road, Mason’s Elat, and the second of driving without due care and attention. The charges were heard bv Mr H. A. Young. S.M.

Sub-Inspector D. A. Mac Lean, who prosecuted, said that, going toward a small bridge on the Dalmeny Road, something went wrong and the bus went off the road, mounting a little hill 18 inches or two feet high, and then careering about 33 yards diagonally across the road till it hit the stump of a tree. The engine of the bus was pushed back and considerable damage done. Some of the children in the bus were seriously injured, one suffering a fractured skull and others severe facial injuries. Some were still in hospital. For the defence Mr 1). W. Russell said that Miller actually used great judgment in avoiding a 40-foot chasm into which the bus would havo fallen had he not steered for the tree. “I think he was negligent in letting the bus run up an 18-inch to two-feet rise,” the Magistrate sa.id. after hearing the evidence and Mr Russell’s submissions. Mr Russell said that Miller had lost his job and was now a groom in a stable. He suffered a broken jaw and other injuries in the accident. Miller was fined on the charge of negligent driving. The charge of driving without due care and attention was withdrawn.