WILD MEN AT THE WHEEL.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1921, Page 4

WILD MEN AT THE WHEEL.

By .Max Pemberton. One of the Pioneer Motorists. \ recent, lour upon some ot the great. highways of Kngland »mt . Scotland has c iivinced me tliut. t he unitor peril is l.y no means modified indeed, it is imisi menacing and prevalent almost everywhere. All the faults against which the wisdom of our motoring ancestors warned us are committed daily upon any considerable thoroughfare. M.-n take passes which drive other men on to the footpath or into the ditch. They drive habitually upon the wrong side of the road at corners; they take a risk at cross-roads and trust, to ! tile other man to stop. Cyclists sutler j I>v their truculence, and the statistics as to the number ol deal people to be luiind mi any highway do not interest them. They plead that they sounded, their herns. - This reckless driving is giving the coroners plenty to do. At inr| nest ( after inquest we hear a verdict ol aecidental dealt', and yet any motorist could tell von that, a- large percentage

of those deaths was not due tu accident lint to ignorance from which recklessness did net stand apart. Any man who kills another upon a public highway should be subjected to something more than these too often merely formal inquiries----at which a young gentleman says he is sorry, and the jury is too ready to weep with him. A satisfying justification should bo demanded—the onus should tie ti]>on the delenee, and the driver should either, he punished severely or compelled to oiler sni'li evidence as just men could accept. • * * * *

In London many motorists seem to ignore pedestrians altogether. As Leech’s van-driver cried to the costermonger in his barrow, so del they cry to ns; "T don’t know nothing about wrong sides nr right sidvxs, hut you got out of the way if you don’t want to Iks made a. wafer of.” AVe are to leap, fall, or scramble out. of the way even when we cross the road from a shelter. Admittedly much of this is mere ignorance. They do not know what thev are doing; some of them have never seen a serious smash with all its ghastly concomitants limbs twitted,' women scarred for life, tho prone

figure lying still upon the road. One such lesson is enough—but it leads too often to the coroner’s court. If a. man drive a. motor-car prudently, there is no reason why he should drive slowly. A good average upon ii- long journey is not made hy racing between two approaching tramwav-cars not bv taking cross-roads at forty miles an hour, not hy coming round a corner on the wrong side, not by (ailing to sound the horn for mere bravado. liot by racing down a street ■■ !-e’> children are .playing. It is made

lit- keeping the ear going at that speed which the circumstances of the road justify fifty miles an hour, if y«tl like, across the prairies; live miles an |„ mr when the children are coming out of school. The man who so drives will get there as soon as the other. Some day tvo shall pass no man for the driver’s seat who does not prove bis competence before :i competent board of examiners. Meanwhile. I can only suggest mice more than there are easier roads to suicide than reekle-s----m-ss at the wheel.