New-York tribune., 1903-07-24
AUTOMOBILE LESSONS.

The tragic automobile disaster on the Ocean
Parkway, in Brooklyn, the other evening was
more than usually instructive. The machine
was a new and powerful one of a first class
make. 1t was managed by an expert profes-
sional engineer. 1t was running on one of the
safest and most perfect roads in the world
smooth, level. straight and broad. 1t had the
road almost to ITSELF only one other vehicle be-
ing near it. Yet it became unmanageable,
swerved and ran into tree with fatal results.
The lessons of such an incident are so obvious
that the wayfaring n, though "scorcher,"
should not therein.
One is the danger of high speed to the driver
and other occupants Of the vehicle This auto
mobile was going at a high rate of speed prob
ably two three times as fast as the rate pre-
scribed by law, is the custom of too many
on the Ocean Parkway. That fact was demon
strated by the results Of the disaster Had the
machine been moving at no more than the legal
rate of speed it might have bumped into the
tree and damaged ITSELF but it's occupants would
not have been seriously injured. The fact that
one of them was instantly killed and another
was hurled long distance as from a catapult
tells convincingly how fast the machine must
have been going. If the accident, because Of
the speed, was SO disastrous on one of the
safest roads in the world, what might it not
have been on farIess safe one, a road narrow.
rough, crooked and hilly, such as some "scorch-
ers do not hesitate TO rush over at racing
speed?
Another lesson is the danger Of high speed to
other people on the highway. On this occasion,
as we have said, the road was practically de-
serted But suppose heavy machine at high
speed gets out of control on a crowded avenue?
On Sunday afternoon every mile of the Ocean
Parkway is crowded with hundreds of vehicles
Among them are many huge automobiles often
travelling at an illegally high speed One of
them is as likely to get out of order and run
Wild at such time as at any other. II it did
1t would be far more likely to wreck a dozen
carriages than to run into a tree The fact
must be recognized that one of these automo-
biles is as much an engine as a railroad Iocomo-
tive, and is almost as dangerous In a collision
Now, the locomotive runs upon fixed rails which
prevent it from swerving and running amuck
If its machinery gets out of order or the engi-
neer loses his head, it still sticks to the roiIs.
or, II 1t leaves them, it Immediately comes tn a
stop. But the automobile has no such safe
guard as the rails to keep 1t in its course Tf
its steering apparatus gets out of order or the
engineer becomes bewildered or disabled there
is nothing 10 prevent it from zigza gging madIv
in all directions, to its own ruin and to the
grave peril of everybody in the vicinity II Is
therefore necessary to adopt the substitute
safeguard OF restraining the speed to within
limits that viii make the machine compara.
lively harmless If it does run astray
A third lesson, which we have often hitherto
dwelt upon in these columns, is the desira bilitv
indeed the necessity-Of paying attention fret
Of all to the safety and trustworthiness of anti
mobiles, to their dirigibiHty and their inmnDItv
from getting out of order. Those qualities aro
incomparably more important than mere snaad
The one that was wrecked the other night uo.
able to make high speed, probably several
times higher than that which the law narr,,+s
on our highways. 1t may have afforded tbo
engineer pleasure to know that he was runnin,
it. or could run 1t, at so high a rate of speed
But 1t would now be immeasurabIy more sa+1s
factory TO him to have had a machine +ho.
could not go faster than the legal rate and tbat
would not have got out of order and gone -
ramniing trees, with fatal results