ONE-SIDED SPORT BY CAR DRIVERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 21 June 1937, Page 8

ONE-SIDED SPORT BY CAR DRIVERS

OTHER MOTORISTS HARRIED AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION'S APPEAL “Insistence is a kind of selfish egoism which turns an otherwise good motorist into a ‘truster’ one uro takes advantages of every opening to go through the traffic and so save a few minutes on a journey,” says the latest safety message of the Automobile Association (Canterbury) Inco'ncra' ed. “It is not because he is really in a hurry that, by skilful driving and thrusting methods, he threads his way through the gaps which permit his passage with only an inch or so to spare.

“He likes doing it: it adds to the zest of driving, and turns a pastime into a snort which is different from ah other sports because the people with whom he is competing are unaware of their part in the contest. It is so easy to win a game of strategy if one's opponents are not playing. “This would not matter at all to the world at large, but the thrustei causes a great deal of inconvenience to a large number of people and contributes to the number of accidents on the road. The ‘thruster’ always being the overtaking party, does not realise how disconcernting it is to have a car on one’s tail as it were, constantly juggling for oos'tion to swoon by “If he had competed in an international road race he would know that his methods are exactly the same as those employed by the great Continental drivers who wear down many a rival by this same harrying process. If it can play on the nerves of a roadracing expert its effect upon the ordinary family motorist can well be imagined. “A dr' t t who is handed is not clear-hea * :-d in an emergency; therefore the “thruster” is definitely lowering the standard of driving among his fellows. Legally it is not often an offence, and there is only one law which the motoring public can hope will mitigate the nuisance, for such it is, and that is the law of decency.”