The Road Hog

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 408, 17 July 1928, Page 6

The Road Hog

£IOO Fine Suggested to Stop Growing Danger Search Webster as you may, you will find no definition of a speedway such as “a broad, smooth suburban road with easy grades.” Nothing like it, in fact. But there are hundreds of motorists who, with a most dangerous indifference to their own and the other fellow’s safety, persist in speeding along any stretch of road that provides easy going. Of course there are times when a motorist has an obviously clear “go”— when to “step on it” is not dangerous. But, unfortunately for the safety of the road, the speedster type of road hog is a decidedly poor judge. He does not know when the way is clear enough to “open her out.” Or he does not care. As to the “other chap.” the speed hog is not interested. The clang of the ambulance bell, or the voice of the police prosecutor, do not enter into his scheme of things. They are matters of concern only for the “mug”—the motorist who crashes or is caught. He is above that kind of thing. On the Increase But the increasingly large number of road crashes give the speed hog the lie direct. Everyone knows him for a menace—every motorist has been | forced oft' the road by his lunatic burst i of speed; has had to wrench the wheel and stamp on the brake to give him an unwarranted right of way. Every available method appears to have been tried to stop these practices, but they still go on. The authorities should adopt the suggestion continually being advocated by the motorists’ organisations throughout the country for a stiffer fine. In Sydney the police have asked for a maximum fine of £IOO and the right for the Court to send the offender to gaol without the option. Whatever is done- in Auckland it is certainly time that road speeding loses its charm for the selfish, the stupid and the dangerous driver. AS SEEN IN SYDNEY REGULATIONS ARE BROADMINDED The National Roads and Motorists’ Association of Sydney, an organisation very similar to the A.A.A., has .received a copy of the recently gazetted New Zealand Motor Regulations. Although these regulations received a very mixed welcome in New Zealand the Australian authorities consider them almost the acme of perfection. A summary of the main clauses was handed by the N.R.M.A. to the “Daily Guardian,” which reprinted them as a model for the authorities under the caption, “New Regulations Are BroadMinded.” Which confirms the adage, “Distance lends enchantment to the view.”