HKSAR v. Wong Wai Tong

HCMA924/2007

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO. 924 OF 2007

(ON APPEAL FROM KCS 7150 OF 2007)

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BETWEEN

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Before:  Deputy High Court Judge Line in Court

Date of Hearing:  8 November 2007

Date of Judgment:  8 November 2007

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J U D G M E N T

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1.This is an appeal against a conviction for careless driving.

2.The case for the prosecution at trial was that a police officer was riding his motorcycle in the second lane of Canton Road, and in front of him, in the third lane, was a medium goods vehicle driven by the Appellant.  The police officer said that the Appellant cut into his lane, causing him to swerve and sound his horn, and that an accident was only narrowly avoided; that he accordingly stopped the Appellant, who explained with these words, “You might be in my blind spot, so I couldn’t see you.”

3.The Appellant gave evidence.  He said that he had indeed moved halfway from the third lane into the second lane when he heard the sound of a horn from behind, and he said that he had not seen the police motorcyclist at the time when the horn was sounded or, indeed, before it.  He admitted saying to the police officer the remark about the blind spot, and indeed, that was really his explanation in his evidence as to why it was that there was this near miss.

4.The Appellant raises a number of points and deals with a number of factual issues in his submissions to me today.  I have indicated for the purposes of argument in the appeal I am prepared to go along with what he says about the facts, and I am prepared to deal with the case on the basis of what he asserts and asserted in his evidence below.

5.What he has not appreciated, and what I have tried to explain to him, is this:  that the failure to deal with the problem of the potential of a vehicle being in his blind spot is exactly what the prosecution complained about below and was the substance of the allegation of careless driving.  Cutting into another lane and almost hitting a motorcyclist is clearly careless driving, because it is driving that does not come up to the standard of the reasonable and prudent driver.

6.It is no defence to say it happened because the motorcycle was in my blind spot.  The reasonable and prudent driver knows of the existence of a blind spot, and it is his duty to deal with it before changing lanes.

7.Accordingly, I cannot allow this appeal against conviction, and it is dismissed.

Representations:

Mr Martin Hui, Senior Government Counsel of the Department of Justice, for the Respondent

Appellant Wong Wai Tong (黃煒棠), in person