The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1914. MOTOR MISHAPS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 79, 24 July 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1914. MOTOR MISHAPS.

During the year 1913 there were 830 fatal accidents and 16,669 non-fatal accidents in England and Wales caused by motor vehicles other than omnibuses. The statistics show a. great increase year by year, and beyond rispute the streets of towns and the country roads are very much more danger.ous than they were before the coming of the motor-car, and the danger is increasing. Remarking on this, the London Daily News says that no doubt in part the fact that many people now live were bred up to deal with a slower form of traffic is responsible, and of course the motor driver is not accountable for all the accidents m which he is involved. Some of them are due to external conditions, some to the perilous practice of children running across the motorist's path in a spirit of mischievous sport and so on. But there can be no question that the recklessness of the drivers and owners of motor-cars is the chief cause. The | vast majority of motor accidents occur during pleasure drives, and motoring is an amusement the essence of which for many motorists consists in a speed which is usually unlawful and often dangerous. After expressing the view that the English, law, whatever the cause, fails to protect the public from motor accidents, the journal referred to concludes that the motorists themselves, through their associations, could do much to suppress their black sheep, by punishing to the extent of their means every breach of the law by motorists. They cannot and do not approve the abuses which so often make the motor-car a scourge, but their disapproval should be active. No onft wishes to interfere with a reasonable pleasure and a valuable aid to the activities of life. But motoring must be consistent with the safety of the non-motoring public and at all costs this shameful practice of fleeing from the scene of their own wrong-doing must be suppressed.