The Queen v. Chau Yiu-ming
Read the full judgment text of HCCC 1612/1983 on BabelCite. This High Court CFI judgment.
1. The Appeallant pleaded guilty on 13th December 1983 to careless driving of his 2-ton goods vehicle at about 11:15 a.m. on 19th August 1983 while driving towards the New Territories in the third lane from the left of the four-lane dual carriagevay Kwai Chung Road. It was raining heavily at the time. Two vehicles ahead of him in the lane, a car and a private van came to a halt at the site of a traffic accident. The Appellant failed to come to a halt so as to avoid hitting the rear of the car wh
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HCCC001612/1983 IN THE SUPREME COURT
BETWEEN
_________ Coram: Baber, J. in court Date: 19th January 1984 ____________ JUDGMENT ____________ 1. The Appeallant pleaded guilty on 13th December 1983 to careless driving of his 2-ton goods vehicle at about 11:15 a.m. on 19th August 1983 while driving towards the New Territories in the third lane from the left of the four-lane dual carriagevay Kwai Chung Road. It was raining heavily at the time. Two vehicles ahead of him in the lane, a car and a private van came to a halt at the site of a traffic accident. The Appellant failed to come to a halt so as to avoid hitting the rear of the car which was immediately in front of him. The collision pushed the car into the rear of the private van ahead of it. All three vehicles sustained some damage and the driver of the car was slightly injured. Clearly either the Appellant was not watching the road ahead of him or was too close to the car in front of him for the speed at which he was proceeding. 2. The Appellant apparently had no previous driving conviction. The Magistrate fined the Appellant $400 and disqualified him from driving a motor vehicle for six months. He took the view that it was in the scale of careless driving cases a bad case. The Appellant had been unrepresented at the trial. Counsel appeared for him at the hearing of his appeal. One matter that may not have been known to the Magistrate is that the Appellant had apparently been driving professionally for ten years; in such circumstances an absence of traffic convictions is a remarkable achievement. He now owns a single lorry, the one involved in the case for which he is still paying by installments, and drives it himself when hired to transport goods. It is his sole source of livelihood from which he supports his wife and children. The disqualification will hit him severely. The fine was entirely appropriate but in these circumstances I think justice will be satisfied if I now remove the disqualification, and I so order in the hope that the Appellant has learned a lesson and will be more careful in future.
Representation: Mr. A.J. Corrigan (D.L.A.) for Appellant. Mr. Frank Wong for Crown. |