Western Mail Friday June 18 1926.
David W. MORGAN, a traveller, of Angus-street, Roath Park, was fined £10 and costs, or two
months' imprisonment, by the Cardiff Stipendiary (Mr. St. John FRANCIS-WILLIAMS) at
Cardiff on Thursday for driving a motor-car recklessly on May 14.
Defendant did not appear personally, and Mr. Tom JOHN, who represented him, pleaded
guilty.
Mr. R. BOOTH (for the prosecution) said a Mr. DAVIES, pushing a bicycle, and Mr. and Mrs.
HANN, pushing a perambulator, were walking at dusk from Rumney towards the city on the
left-hand side of the road, which at that spot was 38 ft. wide. Without warning, Mr.
DAVIES was struck from behind and thrown forward about 6ft. The wind-screen of the
motor-car was broken, but the car was driven on for about 60 yards before it was stopped.
It was chased by a motor-cyclist, who came from the opposite direction.
Mr. DAVIES was rendered unconscious, and defendant, who came back, took him to the
infirmary, where he was detained for seventeen days with a dislocated shoulder and other
injuries. He was (said Mr. BOOTH) still unable to work, and would be so for some time. The
pace the defendant was going was variously described by witnesses as "terrible"
and "terrific."
Mr. Tom JOHN said as a consequence of this occurrence defendant had had a breakdown and
was obliged to go away. At the time he was driving his employer's car.
While motor-cycling with a pillion passenger on the Brecon-Merthyr road on Thursday
evening Mr. Ernest David JONES, credit draper, of 29, High-street, Merthyr, was killed on
being thrown off his machine. Mr. JONES was only a few miles from Brecon when the tyre of
his front wheel burst, throwing him head foremost into the road. His pillion passenger,
Herbert FOULKES, of Mary-street, Twynrodyn, was also thrown off, but he had the good
fortune to escape uninjured. Mr. JONES was conveyed to the Brecon Infirmary, where it was
found that he must have died instantaneously, his skull having been fractured.
Mr. Thomas LEWIS, of Holton-road, Barry Dock, a clerk at the Sailors and Firemen's
Union, Dock View-road, was riding towards Barry from the direction of Rhoose on Thursday
evening, with Mrs. JAMES, of 4, Broad-street, Barry, on the pillion, when Mr. John DUNCAN,
of East Aberthaw, also with a woman riding pillion, approached from the opposite
direction. There was a head on collision and all four were thrown to the road.
All were conveyed to the Barry Town Accident Hospital, where it was found that Mr. DUNCAN
and his companion and Mr. LEWIS had escaped serious injury, Mrs. JAMES, however, is lying
in a critical condition with a fractured skull.
Mr. John George HICKS, lorry-driver, Cardiff, for whom Mr. David REES (Pontypridd)
appeared, was fined £5 and £2 10s. costs at Abercynon on Thursday for driving his lorry in
a dangerous manner at Abercynon.
Hugh William WARD collier, Onllwyn, said that the lorry knocked his motor-cycle
combination into the gutter. The front wheel of his machine was struck and his mother and
two children, who were in the combination, were cut and badly shaken. The corner was a
dangerous one, and defendant's speed was about eighteen miles an hour, and he was on
his wrong side of the road.
The defendant said his speed not exceed twelves miles an hour.
The Chairman (Mr. W. FENWICK) described the case as a bad one, and defendant had
previously been convicted.
Mr. Edward KARRIE, the Cardiff swimmer, was driving a two-seater car from Pontypridd to
Cardiff on Thursday afternoon and as he was proceeding down the hill near the Star Patent
Fuel Works, North-road, the vehicle skidded. It was heading straight for a woman walking a
moment's hesitation, swung the steering wheel round. He avoided the woman, but, the
car swerved into a lamp-post.
Mr. KARRIE received a bad injury to his knee, but was able to proceed home. The lamp
standard was wrecked and the car was badly damaged.
The woman, who was almost in a state of collapse, hurried away.
Prescence of mind and pluck on the part of William DAVIES, an employe' of the Marina
Hotel, Southerndown, in all probability saved the life of Mr. W.T. HUNT, confectioner, of
472, Cowbridge-road, Cardiff, at Southerndown on Wednesday evening.
Mr. HUNT was motoring with his wife and a friend near Southerndown when the side lights of
the car refused to function. The car was pulled up some distance away from the cliff's
edge, and Mr. HUNT crept under the car to investigate the trouble.
While he lay on his back trying to connect the wires leading apparently from the petrol
tank to the lamp a flame shot out, and he struggled to get away from the danger. In his
excitement he appears to have touched the steering wheel or brake.
The car, which by this time was well ablaze, moved forward towards the cliff's edge.
Whether his clothes had caught in the machinery is not clear, but he was seen to struggle
violently for freedom, and, apparently, without avail.
The screams of his terror-stricken wife, who, with her friend, was standing a short
distance away, attracted the attention of DAVIES, who ran towards the moving car, and
succeeded in dragging Mr. HUNT away just as the blazing vehicle hurtled over the cliff to
the shore. 300 ft. below, a wreck.
Notwithstanding his thrilling experience, Mr. HUNT was following his employment on
Thursday much as usual, apart from the effects of the shock.
After giving evidence against Alfred Wallace BUCKETT 25, who had robbed his firm of
£7.5s.5d. worth of boots and shoes, Mr. Aubrey HALEWOOD, a director of Messrs. P. HALEWOOD
and Sons (Limited), went back to the witness-box and appealed for the man. He said BUCKETT
had been put to considerabnle expense through the illness of his wife; he had a mortgage
on his house, and was living above his means.
The justices (Mrs. Rhoda PARKER and Sir William DAVIES) imposed a fine of 40s. or a month,
the chairman (Mrs. PARKER) remarking that they had been influenced to take that course
through the leniency and kindly feeling of the employers.
Mr. Joseph LEWIS defended.
John Patrick