Divisional Court Cases
| Published date | 01 July 1972 |
| Date | 01 July 1972 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201837203600302 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Divisional Court Cases
STOPPING
ON A
MOTORWAY:
WHETHER
AN
EMERGENCY
Higgins
v.
Bernard
THE
Court
recently considered in
Wallwork
u. Rowland (1972,
IAll E.R. 53; 36
J.eL
77) whether the
hard
shoulder of a
motorway is a
"verge"
for the purposes of parkingin
an
emergency
under
the Motorways Traffic Regulations 1959. Since
then
the
Court
has
had
to determine (1972 IW.L.R. 455)
the
circum-
stances in which drowsiness
may
constitute an "emergency"
within the meaning of Regulation 7(2).
The
facts leading to the prosecution of
Arthur
Bernard were
that
at
5.45 p.m. on the 27 April 1971 he stopped his motorcar on
the
hard
shoulder of the slip road forming
part
of the M62
motorway. Very shortly after the defendant
had
stopped a police
officer on
duty
in a patrol
car
saw the defendant sitting in the
driving seat of his car.
When
asked why he
had
stopped,
the
defendant replied,
"For
arest."
The
officer informed the defen-
dant
that
he could have stopped on the A672
about
a
quarter
of a
mile away.
The
defendant said,
"I
didn't
feel too
bad
then."
The
officer pointed
out
that
it
was an offence to stop on a motorway
otherwise
than
in accordance with the Motorway Traffic Regu-
lations
and
told
the
defendant
that
he would be reported with a
view to prosecution.
The
defendant then drove away in a normal
manner.
On
the 20
May
1971 the defendant was charged before
West Riding of Yorkshire justices sitting
at
Halifax with abreach
of the Regulations.
The
justices acquitted the defendant on the
ground
that
he
had
stopped owing to
an
emergency.
The
prose-
cutor appealed by case stated in which in addition to the facts
already mentioned, the justices found
that
on the
day
prior to
that
of the alleged offence the defendant
had
visited his mother in
Cheshire
and
had
stayed up until after 12.30
a.m,
and
rose at
6.30 a.m.
That
for the last mile
of
his
journey
the defendant
had
begun to feel extremely drowsy
and
had
looked for somewhere on
the
A672 to stop
but
could
not
find a suitable place before he
had
got on to the approach road to the motorway. Owing to the
amount
of traffic he decided
that
it would be dangerous to stop
139
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