MOTOR COLUMN.

Grey River Argus, 8 December 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

MOTOR COLUMN.

THE MOTOR FIEND. HOW T() DEAL WITH HIM. (By “St. Andrew.”) Ihe toll of the road is distressing reading. Week after week the bread winner of the family, sometimes husband and wife, ami in other cases young children, are killed or maimed as the result of accidents which might and ought to have been avoided. ‘‘Safety First” is an admirable in struction to us all, but it is time wc wrote it, ‘‘Safety all the time.” In motoring there is a recklessness which must cease, for too often the care lul driver is involved in an accident soi-?ly through the reckless driving of someone who is prepared to “take risks all tin- time.” 1 am not eon corned about the young ami carefui driver, who., thinking of life ami limb, prefers to hold up a queue rather than risk his life and those of others. It. is the mad fool af the wheel who is never content mile s he is going full spe< d ahead, cutting in here and there ami enforcing on others the need of safety precautions, which he declines t u exercise. His car or motor-cycle is a plaything, and he claims the full right of the road, to the exclusion of other people’s rights. The mad scorch ers glory in passing and leaving all other cars on the road behind." and make it their proud “boast” that not a : ingle car has passed them on th*? road! All who use the road know that it is impossible to fix a speed limit which pvould be safe at all times. Sometimes 10 miles per hour is not safe, whilst at other times 40 miles an hour is perfectly safe. There is only one place for the fool at the wheel ami that is gaol J Lef us think! J do not want to confine my criticism to the man at the wheel who is unfit' to drive, for if a driver is drunk and found in such a condition when driving, the safety of the public demands that he should first of all pay a severe penalty am! secondly be prohibiten from driving. Nor am 1 concerned to define when a man is drunk, nor to ,| cide what constitutes drunkenness. If. by reason of his condition, he can only.Jdr.iYe.. ip a manner which is dan g< rous to himself or to the public. I J hen public safety demands that he

should be placed under the law of mo t<>r prohibition. The public roads may be constructed for comfort and speed, but. it does not entitle the motorist to the sole use of them, nor to convert them into speedways. The drivers of motor buses are constantly fined for exceeding the speed limit. Again I say that the speed limit ought not to be the dominating factor. It is when two or three in competition for public support are racing to get to certain points of .'vantage that the danger arises. I do not know anything in life where the true sportsmanship should so govern the conduct of man as in motoring. Yet it is sadly lack ing. TheYe are jnotorists who respect neither the pedestrian nor the drivers of other motors. So far- as the pedestrian. is concerned, 1 know many a fool on foot. They leave the footpath and start to cross the road ami only after going three or four yards do they look to see what vehicular traffic is on the road. They create their own difficulties and dangers, but that does not entitle the motorist to say “You” business is to walk on the footpath.” As a motorist. I have a lot of sympathy with the driver. His job is a real task, and everybody from the policeman on point duty (in our big ' centres) to the most stupid pedestrian should try to make his task easy. i sympathise with him all the more because some policemen on point duty are neither as courteous nor as tact ful as they might be. Yet the safe driver never need trouble about the courtesy of the point duty policemen. A polite explanation rarely falls on deaf ears, and the traffic regulator has so many stupid drivers to deal with that the honest driver will generally get over his difficulty. .If he fails, it is because the officer has so much to put up with Irom the stupid law-breakers that he loses his patience. To-day motoring is a real danger. What is the remedy.’ Every owner should be compelled by law to insure against third party risks and driver should pay his own fine, bu 1 think the introduction of the “cat o’ n : )i- tails” would soon put an en ■ to the o speed merchants on tfie roan. Every driver should at least pass a test in sight and hearing and every motor-bus and vehicle for public hire should have its brakes and gears officially inspected at brief intervals.