SPEED MANIAC.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIV, Issue XLIV, 7 May 1924, Page 7

SPEED MANIAC.

SEVERE PUNISHMENT URGED. 1 WELLINGTON, May 5. | Ort Saturday, April 26, when race* were held at Trentham in honour of the visiting special service squadron, there were numerous motor accidents on the Hutt road, especially on the return journey to the city, and, as is well t known,, a traffic inspector of the Wellington City Council met with an acci.dent on the road that evening which, ended fatally.. TEis has led to a full discussion, of the methods of regulating : the motor traffic on this arterial road*? ■ By-laws a:-e now being drafted by the City Council for supervision of this ! traffic-,, and there- is considerable specu- ! lation as to what form they will take. Tice stop watch and the measured distance system are roundly condemned by regular users of the road*, who point out that two- men or twenty men" taking ' times and numbers could not by any i stretch of imagination be said to be ! exercising a proper measure of road • control, for speeding is not the only | danger. Drivers who hang to the centre of the road, those who swing out dangerously in overhauliing slower-moving j vehicles,, horse-drawn- lorries on the car track, cycles anywhere but on the cycle track, could not bo put in their places by timekeepers. It was when fast and slow, right and wrong side, straight ■ ahead, and corkscrew traffic made a mixture of it that smashes and acci- i dents occurred. The American practice ! is to mount control officers on high- ! speed motor-cycles. With such control there could be no argument about the \ speed limit being or not being exceeded. The magistrates must also be requested to be a little more severe on the speed maniac, and the most effective punishment would be to cancel the , license of the offenders. Speeding wotfld then cease promptly.