BRITISH ROAD LAW'S

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1931, Page 7

BRITISH ROAD LAW'S

SUPERVISING THE. TRAFFIC. MOBILE POLICE SCHEME. With the coming into operation- on December 1 of some of the new road laws in Britain, including the _ dangerous and careless driving provisions, arrangements were Being made throughout the country for the equipment of mobile police to ensure compliance with the requirements of the new statute. Normally, the mobile police will be in uniform. The driver of a motor vehicle is obliged to stop his vehicle when called upon to do so by a police officer, provided, however, that the officer, is in uniform. The mobile police will therefore, for purposes of ordinary duty be in uniform. ' Mr. Herbert Morrison, the Minister of Transport, discussed the subject .of mobile police in an interview. He explained that he had incorporated, in the Road Traffic Act, provisions authorising grants out of the Road I'und to the cost of police, motor-cars, and cycles because he desired to encourage the local police authorities to equip the police for modern service on the roads. “I do not believe,” Mr. Morrision said, “that the abolition of the speed limit will make any material difference to the speed of the traffic, but nevertheless it make it more than ever the duty of the State and the local authorities to see that the police are adequately equipped for their task. “A policeman equipped with motorcar or motor-cycle is in a much better positions than the pedestrian- policeman to supervise moving traffic. Moreover, it is an economical step, because the mobile police will be able to cover a much wider area and they will also be able to deal with delinquents with greater “The new Act emphasises the impropriety of dangerous, reckless and careless driving, and it substantially increases the penalties. What I desired was not that there should be a mobile policeman on every mile of the highway, but that there should be a sufficiency of mobile police to make the motorist realise that he might be ‘dropped on’ at any time. “It is probable that there will be about one thousand mobile policeman, of whom two-thirds will in all likelihood use motor-cycles and the remainder motor-cars. ' These vehicles, financially aided out of the Road bund, will enable the police to deal effectively and decisively with drivers who are a positive danger to other drivers and to pedestrians. “This kind of driver is of no use to motoring in general, and every decent motorist will share my desire that in clear cases of dangerous and reckless driving there should be a prosecution, and that the magistrates will not hesitate to inflict really effective penalties. The sooner this typo of driver is off the highway altogether the better it will be for the safety of the public and the popularity of motoring transport. “There will, I conceive, though this is a matter for ths police authorities and the Home Office, be a second duty of the mobile police—to check minor faults and minor carelessness in driving. In this matter they will act in a friendly wav, warning drivers against faults, and encouraging them to do better. “There is no question of the mobile' police pursuing their duties in a, merely vindictive spirit. I have no wish that the police should act in a vindictive or bullying spirit, nor that they should* so to speak, inVite or stimulate trouble among drivers. The job of the mobile police, as I conceive it, is to aim at getting order, considerateness and decent conduct on the King’s highway.”-