South Yorkshire Times, February 16th, 1934
Wild Driving
Wreck of a Wedding Party
Crash at Red House
Leslie Beresford Williams, colliery stone contractor, 20 Don View, Mexborough, at Doncaster on Tuesday, was fined £10 and his licence suspended for five years for having driven to the danger of the public. The case was the sequel to a crash between a car driven by Williams and a stationary lorry near the Red House Woodlands on the Great North Road on November 20th, when the five occupants of the car were so badly injured that they had to be taken to the Doncaster Infirmary. It was alleged in court that some of them were under the influence of drink.
Supt. W. Huddlestobe said that on November 20th about 12-40 a.m. Inspector Wild and P.c. Underwood were on duty on the Great North Road, north of Skellow cross roads. They saw a car coming from the direction of Pontefract at a terrific speed. Owing to the dangerous manner in which the car was being driven, P.c. Underwood signalled the driver to stop. He ignored the signal and the cross roads and did not slacken speed. The officer took the number and the inspector jumped into his car and followed. On reaching the Way Side café near Red House, the inspector saw that the car had crashed into the back of a stationary lorry. The front of the car was wedged under the back of the lorry, was completely wrecked and the five occupants injured. The lorry was standing close into the kerb, was laden with stone and was well lighted. Four of the passengers were all more or less drunk and the driver had had a fair amount of drink. When told he would be reported he said; “Has there been an accident?” Apparently, he did not realise what had happened.
Inspector Wilde estimated that William’s car was doing at over 60miles an hour. It was serving from one side of the road to the other and he was certain something would happen before it got to Woodlands. When he got to the scene of the crash, he found thee of the passengers lying on the grass verge and the driver and another passenger pinned in the car. They were got out. All of them appeared to be badly cut and bruised. Two of the passengers were drunk and the other two had had a lot to drink. When asked to account for driving in a reckless manner, the driver remarked “What’s the matter? Has something happened.”
“I pointed out the wreckage to the driver but he did not appear to take any notice. He smelled strongly of drink. When I drew this to his attention, he made no reply.” The five men were taken to Doncaster Infirmary. At the point where the lorry was standing there was a large lamp which lighted the whole road. The driver of the car would have had a good view of the lorry.
Lucky To Be Alive
Replying to Mr. C. R. Marshall (defending), the inspector said that if the car’s bonnet had not gone under the lorry and caught its spare wheel which absorbed the shock, none of the men would have been alive to-day. The petrol tank and the dashboard were knocked onto the knees of the occupants in front and jammed them to their seats. The three occupants at the back of the car were not unconscious, but drunk. They wanted to shake hands and do other silly things.
Marshall: I suggest that their condition was due to the accident? – No.
Rennie Briggs, of Queensbury, driver of the lorry and his mate, Abraham Skelton, gave evidence that the lorry was left well to the side of the road and well lighted rear and front. They, with John Murphy, of Skellow, manager of the Wayside Café, spoke of the strong smell of drink coming from the passengers. Murphy added that when he looked into the car, he thought all the passengers were dead.
P.c. Underwood said that three of the passengers wanted to shake hands with him and said they were “O.K.” The driver refused to make a statement. There was confetti and rice in the car, and the three men in the back were too drunk to get up.
Williams (on oath) said he had driven the men from Mexborough to Fairburn and during the return journey he had had only two glasses of beer and two “shandy.” He approached the Red House corner at 20 to 25 miles an hour, a yard from his proper side of the road. “After coming round the corner something whitish loomed up immediately in front and there was a crash. I remembered nothing afterwards until I was being asked by a nurse in hospital for my driving licence.” He denied that the car was ever doing 60 miles an hour. His average speed on the return journey was 20 to 25 miles an hour. It was not his car, but one that had been hired and he had been employed to drive. If the lorry had had a red light at the rear, he would have seen it and there would have been no accident. His injuries were such that he was in Doncaster and Denaby hospitals for three weeks.
A Wedding Party
Cross-examined by Supt. Huddlestone, defendant said he was driving with his headlights dipped and pointed to the grass verge because he did not know the road. He added that his brother had another party in a car ahead, but he denied that he was speeding to crash that car. At Fairburn they went to an hotel kept by relatives of one of the passengers.
Supt. Huddlestone: And there was a wedding there? – I cannot say.
I put it to you that you and the others were driving there from early on until about midnight? – No.
Williams said they left the public house between 11-30 and 12 after having supper.
Walter Herbert Murray, miner, 10, Makin Street, Mexborough, one of the passengers said he sat with Williams on the return journey and thought he was looking ahead he never saw anything prior to the crash.
The Chairman, (Mr. G. E. Cooke-Yarborough: Assuming the lorry was directly in front of you why did you not see it? – I don’t know.
Witness went on to say that defendant was sober. He denied being drunk himself.
The other passengers, Alfred Addy, colliery stoneman, 6 Dufton Rad, Burcroft, Conisborough; Fred Addy, 16, Herbert Street, Mexborough; William Purdy and Robert Purdy, 7, Dearne Street, Conisborough, each testified that Williams was driving carefully and was sober.
Henry Thomas Williams, butcher’s assistant, 1 The Bungalows, Clifton Hill, Conisborough, brother of defendant, said he was driving another car in front of his brother, and he passed a lorry at Red House corner which had no lighted tail-lamp.
Ernest Walter Taylor, 85, Chapel Lane, Thurnscoe, a partner in the Central Garage, Denaby Main said defendant was employed as a temporary driver. Describing the damage to the car he said that only the front was wrecked, the radiator being pushed back on to the engine, the windscreen and steering column being pushed back and the doors out of shape. The chassis and wheels were undamaged.
He swore that the car was not capable of doing over 50 miles an hour.
It was stated that Williams was fined £3 at the same court last July for driving without due care.
Imposing the fine, the Chairman said “This is a most disgraceful case and we are not sure that it is not our duty to send you to prison. By your reckless driving you injured four people besides yourself and you won’t be allowed to drive again for a long time.