Recorder Readings as Court Evidence
Page 56
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READINGS from a recorder fitted to a lorry were produced during a damages action at Nottinghamshire
Assizes last week. Mrs. Edith Emily Burns Pritchard, Cochran Park Estate, Newcastle upon Tyne, unsuccessfully claimed damages for the death of her husband from the Stanton Ironworks Co., Ltd.
Mr. B. Caulfield, for Mrs. Pritchard, said that she and her husband were thrown from their motor scooter when an overtaking lorry touched the handlebars. Mr. Pritchard died the next day.
The plaintiff alleged that the company were the owners of the lorry and that their driver had been negligent. Three children had identified the vehicle as one belonging to Stanton Ironworks, and police inquiries had narrowed the search down to one possible lorry.
If it were the vehicle involved, it was off its route. The reorder showed that the lorry had taken 15 minutes longer on its return journey than on its outward run.
The company claimed that none of their vehicles had passed the point where the accident occurred. Mr. A. M. Davies, for Stanton Ironworks, stated that the discrepancy in the readings was explained by the fact that the driver had called twice at his home. He had been seen there by two witnesses.
Mr. Justice Jones, dismissing the claim. said that the identity of the lorry's owners had not been proved.