MOTOR SPEED GUESSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19832, 30 December 1927, Page 10

MOTOR SPEED GUESSES.

UNRELIABLE EVIDENCE. EXPERIENCE IN SYDNEY. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY, Dec. 22. In actions brought against motorists, people frequently, in fact, almost daily, go into the witness box and swear with a definiteness which admits of no doubt in their minds that the driver of a car was travelling' at "so and so" a speed. A Sydney paper's test of the ability of the man in the street to judge of the speed of a motor-car was very illuminating. One man, a passer-by in the street like the others, said that one car whose speedometer registered 25 miles was travelling at 40 miles. Others were also hopelessly out of it in their judgment. One woman who was accosted coufessed that she had no idea of speed. Site proved it by estimating at 60 miles an hour the speed of a car which was actually travelling at 25 miles. The judgment of these passers-by bore out eloquently the experience of Sydney magistrates and others who have to deal with actions brought against motorists, tiiat the average witness is most unreliable when he gives his version of the pace of a motor-car. As a matter of fact, it was the erratic judgment of the man in the street in this respect that largely induced the Sydney traffic authorities to abandon all limitations of speed, and instead to compel drivers not to travel at "a pace dangerous to the public," having regard to all the circumstances. This places upon the motorists the onus of being careful at all times and in all circumstances.