The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-21
DRUNKEN DRIVERS AND SOME OTHERS Imagination Most Neces- sary Quality for a
 Driver. TWO CONNECTICUT MOTORISTS SCORED. Julian Street on Good and
 Bad Driving.

Julian Street, the author and dra- matic critic whose published books include My Enemy the Motor" and who lives in Greenwich, writes inter- estingiy on the good and bad auto mobile driving or, as he calls it, The pneumatic peril of the highway" in the automobile number of Golfers Magazine" Rolling through rub ber-tired life is one thing" he says, and rolling out of 1t by way of coll ,ision and a ditch is quite another. Il am becoming more and more afraid of the other fellow and his car whether be his passenger or only happen to run into him upon the road, as one might put 1t.
 It is odd to reflect that the great est present problem connected with the motor car rises almost directly from the overcoming of that vehicle . early problems In it's days of me chanical unreliability the troubles of the automobile were seldom more than serio-comic dilemas at the road side, but perfection has brought it's popularity and popularity has brought new. troubles = troubles too often tragic In the old days we needed good mechanics, to-day the crying need is for good drivers. Without them our roads must be as dangerous as were those of Europe in the days of highwaymen and robber barons Ours is the pneumatic peril, a peril that increases with each new number plate and drivers license. Please do not fancy that I am writing as pe- destrian or horse lover. I abonin- ate walking. hate horses. l am an enthusiastic motorist. It is my enthusiasm over motoring that makes me feel so strongly on the subject Of bad driving.
 Bad driving is far from being en-
 
 Gin the right placesp we'll enough to have been arrested for it. Yet l am a good driver. I have driven tens of thousands of miles, for all of which lightly upon my conscience. These facts are stated with the hope they may give me standing with my broth CT motofist. that he may listen to my plea for better driving.
 The dangerous drivers that one meets upon the road I divide into the following classes: The drunken driver, the reckless driver, the careless driv- CT. the incompetent driver.
 These classes overlap each other of males, with the exception of a few women drivers in the. last-named class. In any one of the four class es may be found that lowest of all highway beasts. the man who speeds away from a victim lying in the road. The best of drivers may injure some one. what follows is a matter not Of driving but of character. The drunk en or the reckless driver proves by his very drunkenness or recklessness that he is morally deficient and it is therefore fair to assume that most of the hideous runaway crimes that are committed lie at the door of one or the other of this pair. My principal reason for speaking of them here is that for the common good all motor ists should unite in assisting in their detection, capture and punishment. They should be hunted down as wig orously as bank absconders are hunt ed and their licenses should be auto matically revoked, not only in one state but in all.
 There has come under my notice the case of a rich young man who was indicted for mansla tighter in New 1t was a runaway crime, yet he has never come to trial. And though a notoriously reckless driver and a par ticipant in many accidents, he still holds a drivers license in Connecti- cut where he resides.
 Another rich young man arrested last year after a wild chase through the principal highway of Greenwich. case leads to the information that 1t came up several times without the culprit making an appearance and was finally nolled (disposed of by nol- pros.) on payment of costs. This man, like the other, had influence and money back of him and still holds a drivers permit in Connecticut So long as either of these men has a motor on the road. so long as either of them may drive or hire other driv- CTS who will do his bidding so long the rest of us are in eternal peril. They are as dangerous as lunatics with loaded guns. Do you think that any paid chauffeur with neither influence nor money would have far cd 90 we'll as they have?
 But 1t is not with these compara- lively unusual fragrant cases that I principally wish to deal. I wish more particularly to urge the well-to-do owner to take more interest in his cars and in the way that they are driven instead of only in the cost of running them. Every man and ev- cry woman making regular use of a motor car should know how to drive it. Such knowledge may in emer-