The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-07-09
DANGEROUS SPEED OF AUTOMOBILES.

A number of fatal accidents recenliS'
in which automobiles have piayeu
prominent parts, are calling out eu
IoriaI protests against the dangerous
rate of speed at which these machines
are sometimes run. Complaint is no"
being made in Honolulu. The 1oiio"-
ing editorial in the Philadelphia rec
ord is typical of many similar ones IN
other journals:
..-rba communities in New Jersey
within twenty or thirty miles of New
York and those which are SO unloreu-
nate as TO be on the highway between
the metropolis ard Atlantic CITY, are
tustly exasperated because of the reck-
Iess speed with which automobiles are
driven within their limits. 1t is COM
mon for these machines to dash alohs
at the rate of forty or fifty mics an
hour to the great danger OF all persons
IN the streets. In case of casualty
the automobile is pushed to greater
speed in order that the iawiess drivers
may escape the penalty, OF their ot1ehse-
All sorts of expedients have been pro-
nosed. such as a gate! which may be
lowered on the approach of an auto
mobile, and at one place there are
threats of battering ram to De USED
on any machine which may impure ci'i-
zens by unlawful speeding.
How to deal with the rich owners OF
the horseless carriage is not clear.
Fines of course, mean notning- IL
deed. on the payment of me tune
amount of which he considers inslgnln-
icant) the millionaire chauffeur seems
+o think he has bought the right to
break records along the pubic thor-
oughfares regardless of all regulations
An indignant legislator has proposed
that every man who drives his engine
at higher speed than is authorized
| shall be sent to prison for long term.
To this a magistrate replies that the
penalty would be visited on the hlreo
4 ard innocent chauffeur, who is mace
the scapegoat for his rich employer.
| The only method which the French
could devise was to make 1T necessary
as q condition of license, that the au-
tomobiIe should bear its number In fg-
rr.s so large as to be easily read. no
| matter how fast the pace, in order that
the owner might be prosecuted In event
of casualty.
"This and all other suggestions Vir-
tually mean that by paying money
enough the millionaire may go tearing
| down the streets at a dangerous rate,
overturning anybody who may be IN
able to escape Thus the privilege OF
doing things prohibited by the law is
allowed 70 the man who is rich enough
to nav for it. This is drawing dis
tinction between an aristocracy or
wealth and the common people in less
than q. century and half after the es-
/ tablishnent Of the republic which was
tdesigned to prevent the erection OF iegai
barriers between the rich and the poor.
i In New York an attempt viii be MADE
to deal directly with the offending own
i ers who drive their automobiles at law
4 less speed by equipping part of the
police force with light and fast ma
chimes which may overtake almost any
thing of the kind on the road II Is
absurd to say, as they do in France
that there is no way to prevent this
, abuse. That would be to admit the
failure of republican institutions The
, automobile. has come to stay-it Is q
LOGICAL result Of modern development
of motive powers; but should any mum
+ Der of it's drivers continue to show then
lcontempt for the law. they must o'
treated with whatever degree OF sever
i | ity may be necessary to make them re
: spect the law"