CHECKING THE SPEED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 13, 15 July 1939, Page 28

CHECKING THE SPEED

AN AUTOMATIC DEVICE

A special correspondent, writing from London under date June 10, states that a new method of checking the speed of motorists suspected of exceeding the limit has been tested in Lanarkshire, Scotland. It consists of the use of a milage indicator, which takes th" form of a graph.

The needle records on paper, in indelible ink, the speed at which the police car travelled —and thus, of course, that of the car in front. The indicator also gives thf time and distance covered during the incident.

The Motherwell and Wishaw police, who are experimenting with the device, believe that it provides conclusive, unassailable proof, eliminating serious present difficulties in establishing charges of excessive speed.

"The trouble with road-trap or police speedometer evidence," a Scottish motoring official said, "is the element of possible human or mechanical failure. I must admit, however, that such a device, if found satisfactory. would be infinitely better than the present haphazard methods of prosecuting—and, sometimes, persecuting— the motorist,"