TAXI TRAGEDY.

NZ Truth, Issue 274, 1 October 1910, Page 6

TAXI TRAGEDY.

Curious Catastrophe.

The record m Christchiirch of persons killed by , motor-driven vehicles is an appalling one when the population of the city and suburbs is. taken into consideration ; even allowing for the fact that the preponderance of stinking chariots m the Cathedral City compared with other centres, avoidable happenings like violent death per motor car have no right to appear m our statistics, or, at least, not so frequently as they unfortunately do. It is a remarkable fact that when a boy of nine, named Malcolm Emerson Brown, was killed m Gloucester-street last week by a taxi-cab driven by Archibald Lloyd, m the employ of G-. F. Scott, the petrol-propelled conveyance was going at the slow pace of eight miles an hour. Spectators independent of the driver said it was not moving rapidly. Lloyd said he sounded the horn at fifteen yards (a perilouslyclose distance from the front wheels of. a cab), and young Brown, who was squirting water a-t some pals, lost his head, and tried to cross m front of the vehicle. He died later m the hospital. It is an extraordinary thing that a fatality should have occurred when the taxi was crawling along and pulling up to six miles an hour to negotiate a corner further on, because the taxis m Christchurch have had the most astounding luck to escape the slaughter of more people than they have killed m the past. The way they cut through the streets of Christchurch, particularly when off- the main thoroughfare, makes some people shudder, and it is a wonder that a fatal smash-up has not occurred before to-day. The aristo cratic Papanui and Fendalton districts 'phone for taxis to convey the luxurious inhabitants to evening functions, and the way they bustle through Victoria-street, and particularly past train stops, reminds one of an express train late for dinner, with a Minister aboard and no din-ing-car. They say that m law the pedestrian has right-of-road, but when the motor-toom screams and thepedestrian doesn't -move, something has to go, and of course rt is the pedestrian. When the Riccarton, Plumpton, and Metropolitan T.C. meetings are being held, some taxis, from appearances, must reach thirty-five miles an hour, when beyond the town boundary, and if a youngster were to dart across the road at the moment, as youngsters have a habit of doing, the morgue . and the inquest would tell their customary tale, kven though Lloyd's car was going at a slow pace, the fatality should have the effect of placing taxis under closer police scrutiny, and consequently their impetuosity and danger to the public should be sensibly diminished.