R v Hart

• Jurisdiction: Jamaica
• Court: Court of Appeal (Jamaica)
• Judge: Duffus, P.
• Judgment Date: 07 June 1965
• Neutral Citation: JM 1965 CA 63
• Docket Number: Criminal Appeal No. 34 of 1965
• Date: 07 June 1965

Court of Appeal

Duffus, P.; Henriques, J.A.; Waddington, J.A.

Criminal Appeal No. 34 of 1965

R.

and

Hart

Appearances:

D. Carberry appeared for the appellant.

A.G. Gilman for the Crown.

Criminal Law - Dangerous driving — Appeal against conviction

Duffus, P.

1 The appellant was convicted in the Traffic Court of the Corporate Area of the offence of dangerous driving, and he was fined £50 or three months imprisonment with hard labour. He was further disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver's licence for a period of one year from the date of the conviction, which was the 12th of January this year.

2 The case for the Crown shortly, was that a motor cycle police constable was proceeding southerly on Slipe Road on the 10 ^th of October last year at about 5.45 p.m. The appellant was driving a loaded motor truck up Slipe Road. Slipe Road is a four lane highway, and according to the evidence it is divided by a white line down the centre. There are four traffic lanes - two used for South bound traffic and two traffic lanes for North bound traffic.

3 The constable's evidence was that he was proceeding in his right-hand south bound lane when he saw the truck coming up, and it proceeded to overtake two motor cars which were in the right-hand North bound lane. The truck crossed the white line - the dividing white line - and came across into the motor cycle policeman's lane, thereby forcing the policeman to swerve into his left lane, in order to avoid impact with the motor truck. The constable turned his motor cycle around and chasing the truck overtook him on the Half-Way-Tree Road, and there warned the driver, who was the appellant, that he would be prosecuted for dangerous driving. The constable's estimate of the speed of the truck at the time it overtook the two vehicles was 35 to 40...