PUNISHMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 213, 9 September 1935, Page 5

PUNISHMENT.

RECKLESS DRIVERS. ORDERED TO VISIT MORGUE. WOMAN'S " NIGHTMARE » ORBEATU (Prom Our Own' Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, August 21. Some years ago a visiting New Zealand editor, after surveying California's difficult traffic problem, stated that he had been told a great percentage of the people were involved every year in accidents, most of which were the result' of reckless driving on the part of careless motorists. The official figures given him showed that the percentage had whole numbers with a half added. The exact figures are not recalled, but perhaps they were 22* to the thousand. He said: "That half interests me most. I suppose that means that someone was half-killed. The mystery to me is that half the population is not completely killed, judging by the recklessness shown bv many drivers." "in Los Angeles a system has been evolved by magistrates dealing with traffic violators. After a fine has been imposed on guilty offenders, they have been ordered to visit the morgue and see the dead bodies of those killed in street accidents through reckless driving. That method has now been introduced in San Francieco and has caused a feeling of horror among culprits. One particular case is now engaging the attention of the San Francisco Press, for a ] woman had to undergo the experience of viewing the dead after she had been convicted of reckless driving. Pale and nervous and sleepy-eyed, Violet Rudolf, a night club hostess, appeared in the San Francisco traffic court—a spectator by command —to recite a story of wide-awake nightmares. She was haunted by the sight of automobile accident victims in the county morgue, which she visited by order of Judge Elmer Robinson, as punishment for reckless driving.

Horrible Night.

"I hope I never spend such, a horrible night again," she declared on the first of her daily compulsory visits to court to hear other traffic cases. "It -was a great lesson. I shall never speed again. And I hope that people who speed will realise what a terrible experience I've had, so that it'll be a lesson to them, too." Earlier she said that if she had not had a strong heart "I would have died, right there in that awful morgue, among all those horrible bodies!" "I didn't dream it would be like that," the girl said. "They took me into what I .thought was a curtained -corridor. Suddenly someone pulled the curtains , back. All my life I have had a terror of dead bodies. Now I can't get these from my mind. I keep covering my eyes and crying, and I'm so nervous I can't get out of bed. The judge said lie was making things easy for me by not sending me to gaol. But I'd rather spend a thousand nights in gaol than spend them remembering the morgue. " Sentenced Me Four Ways." "I think there were dozens of dead people there —unsheeted—under glass. I can't remember what happened—l just kept seeing them. I guess I screamed a lot. But I wonder why I didn't die. 1 don't think it was just. The judge sentenced me four ways. I lose my driver's license for 30 days. I have to appear in Court every day to listen to the cases being tried. I was fined. I had to go to the morgue. He made my sentence 'light,' he said, because I'm helping to support my family. They would rather starve than see me like this, I know. Aβ for taking my license away, I feel as if I could never drive a car again. And to go to Court I'll have to get up at 8.30, and I work until 2 o'clock every morning. "I couldn't go to work last night. I i tried, but I was shaking so I couldn't ] get out of bed. I don't think I shall ever recover from the shock."