CHOOSING MASCOTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 102, 11 April 1933, Page 4

CHOOSING MASCOTS

A POSSIBLE ELEMENT OF DANGER. The line which divides questions of personal choice from questions of public safety is not always a very definite one. The selection of motor-car mascots, for instance, seems at first sight to be a question which rests entirely with the taste—or lack of taste—of the individual motorist. The British Ministry of Transport, however, put a new complexion on the matter when, in 1931, legislation was introduced prohibiting the use of sharp-pointed mascots on radiators. This provision was prompted by the fact that severe injuries in accidents had been proved to be due entirely to the sharp points of mascots which projected over the radiator line. At the time it was criticised as petty legislation and as an unnecessary interference with the liberty of the subject. A less important, though equally interesting, aspect of the matter is raised by a‘ writer in an overseas paper, who states that the moving mascot may easily distract a driver’s attention at a critical moment. Circumstances often arise in which a slightly unusual movement on the part of an aero-propeller mascot, for instance, may have serious results. While a car is moving slowly through heavy traffic, an eddy current of air from a side street causes the propeller to stop and revolve slowly in the opposite direction. The driver, for an instant, focuses his eye on the propeller, and he is obviously unprepared for any emergency. The danger of such a contingency, however, does not seem to be as great as that of the garrulous passenger, who, with irrelevant ehatter, distracts the driver’s attention when all his concentration is needed. In any case, the degree of danger is entirely dependent on tho degree of skill and resource of the driver concerned. Motorists who have any reason to doubt their selfreliance in an emergency would certainly be well advised to avoid potential sources of distraction —human or. mechanical—while driving.