LONDON'S JUGGERNAUTS,

Evening Star, Issue 14638, 7 August 1911, Page 4

LONDON'S JUGGERNAUTS,

The mrui from overseas who described I his first week in London as "a period of ! rriirai ulous escapes "' was really not draw- : ir:g the leng li >\v very much. To LonI doners inured t.> the rush of vehicular I traffic, crossing the. main streets of the j City ■and the West End is rapidly beccm- ! ing something to be. accomplished with | great caution ; to strangers unfamiliar witit the street turmoil of large towns it i«I already a proceed m/r fraught with dangers. | The chief source of these are the motorI <U-ivr-n ve-bieie.-, ::r.A ihe greatest of ali th* \ motor omnibus. These- huge contraptions I are, ths .niKaernaut.' of cur streets. Hardly j a day passes on which they do not claim ; a. human sacrifice, and during the past : fovr weeks the daily toll has risen to an ahumiag txte::!. This week has been partieuluriy proline in motor omnibus accidents. Xiue per-KCivs were injured in j Lambeih thn.uji a. collision between two | motor omniLitses ; m hoy was run over, ! and. it is feared, iauJly injured, in Fleet I sircot: one of Liberty's shop windows { was shall eix-d by a. motor bus which ran j amok in street, owing to defective steering gear: and another bus collided with a cart in I-'k-et street, killed a horse, demolished ;; jeweller's shop front, and | sent the contents flying all over the place.- | Wh;re do-;-, ihe fault lie? Tlie motor | bus is little by little ijcttting within j meajrErahle distance of perfection as r«- ! gards "vlia-bilily :i.nd control, and tlie j latest patter:! vehicles art* a, vast improvo- ' m<::tt on the okler type;, as regards noise. j smell. ;iiit smoothness of running. And | it is just this :.ppro;.«'h to perfection that seems to cause the accidents. Ths drivers 1 are too sure < ; their power over their I vehicles, 'j'hev take risks, confident in the | belief that they can pull it up in it« own longth, even when going at 15 or 16 | miles an hour. And as a rule they can. But if anything goe.; wrong with the brakes or steering pear, or if the wheels strike a greasy piit.h of roadway, the driver has no more control over tie bus than ha w.-uld over the charge of a mad elephant. The chief causes of disaster a.re. st-eering gear troubles and skidding, and absolutely reddest; driving. The saJety of life and limbs is sacrificed to speed, and there is a. tendency on the part of motor drivers to disresrard those cardinal rules of the road which hitherto made London trafD-c, in proportion to its voJume, the safest. ::nd most orderly' in the. world. Th'M'e were dangers in the days of the old horse omnibus?..-, arising ckieily from racing between the vehicles of rival companies along crowded routes, but those dangers were a.s nothing compared to thos* cpused by the racing among motor buses going on to-day. It is no uncommon sii:hb to seo half a dozen fivo or sis-ton motors tcaxi-vg down Fleet street at j:2 miles an hour or mow, with, only a foot or so l>etween the ''bonnet" of one and tho tail of its leader, and ea<-.h driver snatching at any oponing to get tlie lead. The result is that if there is anything m front tho buses have to be brought up„wiih a jeik that semis the passengers flying from their seats, and subjects ti>e whole fabric of the bus to a tremendous strain, which must inevitably product? weaknesses in tho vital parts of the machinery, which will ultimately result in serious accidents. The menace of the motor bus in London is very r«U, a-nd Londoners are beginning U> realise the fact that tbey ar-e paying too big a price for th«i one great advantage of these vehicles, which is speed. Vigorous protests are nw baing made against the unchecked rush of these; haavy cars through the ttrebts, ajid if the bus compardes fail to hoed them they will for a. certainty find themselves faced by a degree of public resentment which they will be unable to withstand. —Own correspondent, June 16. ,