MOTOR ORGANISATION

Levin Daily Chronicle, 29 February 1928, Page 2

MOTOR ORGANISATION

Although hotel concessions and insurance benefits make it possible for the motorist to save in actual cash more than he pays for membership of a motor association, it is in times of flood and'storm that the value of organisation is most apreciated. The car owner may pay £l/1/- for membership and secure £2 in rebates which are the privilege of members. He has then saved himself £1 in cold cash. This may be gratifying, but it is the simple word of road information saving a night in a hog that goes so far with the touring motorist. During the recent floods and snowstorms in England the Automobile Association of Great Britain performed services for its 350,000 members which are more exhaustive than anything offered elsewhere in the world. Out on the road the patrols wore warning traffic of the dangerous or impassable places, working out alternative routes where feasible, and giving aid to stranded vehicles. As there :>v a an unusually large amount of traffic on the roads during and after the Christmas holidays, the danger, confusion, and delay would have been very much greater for travellers but for the assistance of the Autonmhile Association. More than a hundred cars -were found embedded in deep drifts on one of the main roads between London and the coast. Despite warnings, rainy drivers persisted in going on, only to add to the number already imprisoned in the snow. Small cars wholly disappeared in some of the drifts, and it was rather amazing on the following day to see people probing the depths of snow with sticks in the endeavour to find their cars. One motorist chartered a team of men to dig for his car, and after much toil an explorer called out that he had struck it with his shovel Further digging brought a milestone to light! A fanner in the west country made money out of the snow by charging half-a-erown toll for each car which drove across his field in order to make a detour around an impassable drift in the roadway.