MOTORISTS AND PUBLIC SAFETY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 115, 14 May 1912, Page 4

MOTORISTS AND PUBLIC SAFETY.

At the inquest on a motor accident, held on Saturday, the Traffic Inspector I made a suggestion that we think should receive the serious attention of our municipal authorities. It seems that though the owners of all motor vehicles plying for hire must hold certificates of competency, no such restriction is enforced in the ease of private drivers and | owners. More than this, the Traffic Inspector has no authority to inspect private cars, and insist that the brakes and I other portions of the gear shall be in good and efficient order. Now, it seems 'to us, that this state of things urgently [ needs rectifying. It is at least as im- | portant that private drivers of motor ! cars should be able to control their | machines and make their way through! | the traffic without injury to the passer-by j as that the drivers of cars plying for 1 hire should hold certificates of competency. Now that motors have multiplied iso rapidly, it is a difficult matter for the authorities to devise precautions for ensuring the public safety; and to the person who suffers by being run down there is no difference between a private and a public oar. In our opinion nobody should be allowed to risk the lives or limbs of people in general by taking any sort of vehicle through the streets which he is not perfectly competent to control; and the necessity of the case cannot adequately be met, except by insisting that j all motor-car drivers shall pass a satisfactory test of competency and that they shall also when called upon give satisfactory proof to the authorities that their cars, and more especially the brakes, are in good order.