MOTORING ON HAMPDEN ROADS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10060, 30 January 1909, Page 1

MOTORING ON HAMPDEN ROADS.

(From a (.'-orrcspoiuleni.)

What might have been ;i falal accident took place on lbi" Moeraki mail on '1 hursdav afternoon. Mi' Xicolson. when driving home fi-oin 1110 port in company with Mr 1). c. Dunlmr (of Hampden) nul motor-car iit a sharp bend ol tli-e ro;ul. and they had barely time to eel mil ol the way"by turning oil' the road. When the car passed. .Mr Xicolson tinned round on the road again ; iie taw a cart turner! over a steep bank against the feme not more than 200 yards from where he met tiie ear. He at once drove to the scene of tlie accident, and Mr Dunbar p-ed out of the giir anil went down the lwnk and pulled the wreckage oil' the driver of the cart (a baker's eart). The lad was quite unconscious for some considerable time after. The Hon. Mr and Mrs Sinclair and a number ol viv>itor.< happened to be passing alter the lad \v;i* uol out of the wreck, and gave considerable assistance in lie 1 pul -_i, witli spirits, etc.. to comfort the sufferer. It was raining very heavilv at the time. The lad was placed in -Mr" Xicobon's gig. between Mr Xicolson and -Mr Dunbar, and driven to Tl.nnpden. and. 1 am glad to say. lie is improv ing. and I hope out <>f danger: Inn he may feel the effects for some • onsiderable tim'e. He cannot as yet tell how the accident happened. In conversation with Ml' Xicolson, he says ..he has not the slightest doubt that the motor-car was the cause ol the accident. 'I lie man in charge ol the car never stopped to assist him. Xo one would hardly credit that such inhumane wretches could exist. I understand that Mr Xicolson has given motor men ample warning to he more careful when driving over dangerous roads, but. as you wiil see from enclosed nar. from the i'almerston and \Vaikoiiaiti Times, motor men take no notice ot all) warning, and. it fco. motor {rafiic v.ill have to be slopped on Kartigi and Moeraki roads. T am told that »ime »f cur County Councillors sneer at the idea oi motor-cars reducing speed on these roads, the most dangerous in the Dominion: bin we know that we can safely trust -Mr Xicolson to look after the interests of the .Moeraki Biding. The following is the cutting Imm the I'almerston and Waikouaiti Times': —"'l lie discs recently erected by the -Waitaki CountV Council as an imli.-ati..» to motorists to reduie speed lo ,-ix miles an hour over certain dangerous portions of tue roads are at nrosenl being treated with tlie utmost contempt by drivers ol ears ami motor cyclists. Ihe portion "1 the mad between Kvem-U .< • and the Kariigi homestead has be n >naiv:. off as a "tlanccrous /.'inc. ' but a !oi;il re-sident informs us that motori.-ls invanably drive their machines ;it an increaecd speed while travelling between the points mentioned. Our informant also states that while passim'' along the lieaeli mi I ic-day evening the driver of a car d risivety saluted the red disc, and then nrorvded to send bis car alone at the rale of thirty miles an hour. We might mentioue that the County bv-law limits the spo'd between the discs' to six miles an hour, and no cloulit oiv or two prosecution-; would remedy matters.