Road Terrors.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13697, 12 September 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

Road Terrors.

VICTIMS OF THE MOTOR. Can nothing be done to stay, the deadly progress.- jit - .the motor-car, motor-'bus, and mechanical conveyances generally? (ausks a. 'writer in a . London exchange). Tlis patience ot the public is rapidly becoming exhausted. Fines for offenders >eern to be of no use whatever. People rapidly arriving at euch a pitch of exasperation , that, they are showing a dangerous tendency .to take the matter into their own hands, aud try; to-effect-ihat which the law, as - administered, lieems powerless, to do; Two cases have occurred lately, one: with : a motor-'bus and "another with a car—in which, bnt for the' timely arrival of the police and their protectiuu, the drivers would have been lynched by' indignant mobs. The latest was the .case of a car. spinni'ng through a narrow and crowded thoroughfare at a. rate (it: is alleged) of twentyfive miles an hour, killing. a - man , instantly, and so injuring a woman that she had tobe taken to the hospital. There was a very hostile demonstration and the police had to protect, the chauffeur. - I - Jiave nothing -to • say: about che'i chaise against the man, who may or may not lie to blame, but simply quote the case as showing the prevailing temper of the public when these repeated accidents occur. As an. example of the utter futility of fines. - I may take the experience of one police district alone. The fines imposed upon motorists by the Kingston County Justices for offences committed since the beginning of the present year jn the Metropolitan Police pi-rtion of their petty Sessional Division apart from the Surrey Constabulary area, made a total of £1025; no fewer than 229 motorists having bSen convicted.

The fact is that the bulk of the motorists using the roads are those who use them purely andl simply for pleasure,_ and they are generally wealthy people, who are utterly selfish, and who merely ldugh at a line as a passing incident—not. altogether devoid of. humour—which is;. often experienced, in motoring if you are not lucky enough or "tricky" enough to avoid police traps.

RISK. DEATH AND DIRT, attend the passage of the, motor-car everywhere in the country, ami our best roads are absolutely weless for the footpassenger and ordinary traffic. Day after day one's morning contains an 'account- of a accident- with a motor—often three or four are reported l'roni various parts of the country in one day. In nearly every instance the cause is reckless driving—the sheer result of the ypeed mania which gets hold of a man as soon as lie is entrusted with the Nteeriug gear of a mechanical earrings - riage. It is so easy to go fast. There ir. no whipping to be done, no cattle to consider. You simply lift a U ver. or press a pedal, and away you go. It is exhilarating to see the trees, gates, posts, and the hrdge-rows flv past. It w gratifying to leave behind the common herd on fool or riding in a mere horse trap. It is mirth provoking to see the children and poultry ily iu terror at your approach, and unmistakably comic to feel the merry jolt, as your wheel goes over the carcase of a pet dog or cat. 'III? exasperated pedestrian shakes his fist after you in ang<;r, but you have the compensation that your dust blots him out, or your inundating squirt, of mud eplu-shus from his - h»'id t foot. All these things come with the bliss of going fust, and ihe knowledge that the worst that. «\*in happen is a. tine of a sovereign or two, of which you have plenty. The worst of the offenders in respect of the speed regulations are foreigners, who come to this country to spend a holiday, and bring the Continental notions with them, A typical case . came before a Bench of Mugts- i trates on the Brighton road recently. | If- ww? stated in evidence that thft-eati. charteVed "by a . ma,n -with a fovetjEii name, from one of tho fashionable W«»t End hotels, was b-jing driven at a speed of between thirty>-opd . fifty miles an hour; that a clergyman was diiv&n into a hedge and thrown from Ills bicycle, and that drivem of vehicles had very narrow escapes, owing to tlks speed of the motor car.

The who have a just cauwc of yrievaniH\ and who nre entitled to cv* iryotw'ti sympathy are the unfortunate dwellers by sidt-s" of our nne» pretty and delightful roads. IV litcklfrss pedes* trian «s in worst plight, because he not only stands the chaneo of being run down uny tninut.-. b»t all r>tti>.' iu hW walk 5s lost,, for h:s attrition diverted from things around him. and his nunii js r»-ntjre<i in painful attxk><y upon the tusk of motiKntarily. having to climb into some plare of shelter to puvo hi* life. As to the poor children—iin* of the way.tide dwellers, especially the cottagers —their lives are hardly worth an hour's purchase upon such highway* as the Brighton, Portsmouth, Bath, or great. Nortii Hoadi. At public funcf ions! and raw gatherings th* railwnys seem quito given up by iSk 1 - wealthy, motors till tho mobs to tlw^oum-Ji like thnkM of hut;.- mechanical f-htv-p. THK UI'KKKP OF THE ROADS which art? .lit op by lh«*o gejitry li bec.xuoiif a m<i.tit serious it«ui in thH different" highway districts through whioh they pH-t-i Take oa-'i: of Fsrnhsim. and the figure* j«ft published by the local District Council th<-r«. In 1897 ihc cust of keeping up t't.e main road* n !-• £702 per year, and tb- tlivtrici roads £5121. hi 1908 it wot kg outMain roads £:iSV;. and di«ri<t roads £7872. thus- making' an in th-j tir>t-named olaos of nearly '•SO jwr ff-nt., and the <<f >~<oo per eent,- Th*> motorcar owners, who h»v«* <-au«wl thi-iniT-'a«<-, pay nofhitig towards ft, flftd sjive no .-c|uiva!<Tit benr>iir. Direotlv it i.f Mtggwted that. iii>4oti*H -hould be socially to r- pay ihrf various local rating authority for th«» iiurrea>ed expenditure tb.y n.-c.-.v^it tb'-ro is a vre.H <>Utcry from tb<» wealthy <iwn<-rs. who threaten to givo isp rnfi'or iiiii if they :«te trouhkd aitv in«i , o. Th«y .ltytlo tti.lt- th" btllld.tig of IttotOfS IS a toxKi thing. »V it. gives etnt>i.miH-nf in <h- cutitry. iiilt !}»« dwll?r,bv this r«»rn!ss.J'.-, and iu t<»wi.v and vit ! isc-M. a-k how they can benefit- them* H.iW will this coJiijK-nKito us for onr ■ lo*t father-i. mother*, "r •-hildtvn' if«»w will it wake »>ur luiiied property woft-i \vh<! i! w:o< before* So Jong »* our f.uil, lii-t "-af«* fof traffic »r ti; b-r what !'• s- the hmbhi,}.* ~f 11terrible ••. in m«"Uo- l<' ri i!,.. ci.Viiit rv ' S,itiir> ju-aiiC' of -rtavittg tf>» W^eklc ■ -laUfhter bdl will have to bf b.;md. I...wcvcr, lh»« wd! (>av.* ?.» Kr i : to the t«-k of tlo'img * l