SPEED TRAPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25175, 16 March 1943, Page 2

SPEED TRAPS

MOTORISTS* PROTEST FURTHER CONSIDERATION BY COUNCIL The question -of the installation of speed traps by the Traffic Department of the City Corporation is to receive further consideration by the General Committee of the City Council. This decision was reached at the meetmg of the council last night after a letter had been received from the Automobile Association (Otago) strongly objecting to the prgposal. “ We are surprised that the General Committee should ever have considered such an unfair, unsound, and unreliable method of endeavouring to obtain convictions against any section of the public,” the letter stated. It went on to say that the association was not aware of any recent accidents causing personal injury which had been attributed to speeding, and requested that, before setting up speed traps, the council should explore more reliable and less obnoxious methods of controlling traffic. . , _ . A minute from the chief traffic inspector (Mr E. H. Barrett) defending speed traps was also read. He stated that it was true that the practice of timing motor vehicles over a measured distance had been brought into disrepute by small local authorities which had “ farmed ” through traffic, and had not notified the alleged offenders until so much time had elapsed that they could not remember travelling over the route described. If offenders were notified without delay, there could be no reasonable objection to speed traps, which had been upheld repeatedly by .courts in the North Island. “ The motorist who honestly endeavours to comply with the law,” Mr Barrett wrote, “has no need to worry whether his speed is checked by a following vehicle or by a stop-watch. The law-abiding citizen does not fear the plain clothes detective.”