The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-30
VINCENT URGES MOTORISTS TO
 REALIZE DUTY
Would Impose More Stringent Tests on Candidates For
 Operators Licenses
Points Out Appalling Record of Fairfield County CatastrO- phes During Year
(By Samuel E. vincent.)

(By Samuel E. Vincent.)
 do not presume that I am the only person in the city of Bridgeport who has been shocked and alarmed by the frequent serious automobile a,cct- dents that are immediately fatal Or ultima tely result in death.
 To fully appreciate the meaning of these accidents and the necessity for taking some drastic action to prevent them if 1t is not possible otherwise to prevent or greatly lessen them, try to put yourself in the place or the parent who sees a child go from home fuli of life, health, and happiness, onIy to be brought back fatally injured Dy an automobile Put yourself in the place of one who watches a father, mother, wife or husband go from home sound and well, soon to be brought back dead Or seriously injured by an automobile driver, licensed to run a powerful machine on the public streets in city or country at almost any rate of speed or in any manner the dr1ver may think is safe, with little regard for State laws or city ordinances | Suppose the coroner, after an ex- haustive investigation, declares that under the existing laws your Injured loved one was careless and that the 1 driver of the automobile was not ie- gaHy Or crinlinally liable, your loss. your heart-aehe, your sacrifice does rious problem that is growing in se- riousness and danger every month l Day after day, you read of a. similar | loss. of a like sacrifice, made by fellow being.
 l If such losses brought us nearer to a. final solution Of the problem, I 1 trouble to look up the fatalities and accidents that appear in this article, fatalities and accidents that I believe avoided. if those licensed to operate l aItomo mobiles were made more directly responsible, if they were obliged oy protest against violation of the law to give greater consideration to the rights of the great majority who must Pur- sue their journey on foot or by puo- l seems to be for the driver of the au- | tomoabiIe to give warning by horn or other device, the more unearthly tne Ibetter, that the engine of destruction | is on it's way. ThoJlghtless children, l the weak and the strong, the young and the old, must seek safety by flight 1 o,. suffer the consequences, no matter | if you want to board a. trolley car or alight from one, the sound Of the auto horn is your signal to wait and watch for the automobile driver, TOT many of them pay little heed To hu- man kind, seeming to think that 1T they ever had any responsibility IT. IS and the muffler has been opened. ] I find by careful Investigation that | twelve persons have been killed py automobiles in the past year in Fair field county I find further that talk ing Bridgeport as the center and go- ing as far west as Southport and as | like distance into the surrounding Ecountry, that sixty to seventy persons have been seriously injured by autos | in the past year. Some of these per- | sons later died from the injury sus- tained, others will be permanently das- abled I find numerous ha,ir-ra1s1ng, miraculous escapes from death Or in jury made necessary to avoid being killed or seriously injured by alHtomo- piles.
 years record is that mostly those tdriyine autos that have killed or se- riously injured so many persons, nave been out for pleasure, having no par | ticular place to go or time to get there. l It is therefore reasonable to assume | that they had plenty of, time to stop or go slowly enough to nave aVoloeo l many of the accidents that have oc- | cured.
 VIOLATIONS OF LAW WILL
 SOON BECOME CUSTOM. disregard of the rights of the great majority by some automobile drivers, l seem now to be considered by them as their right and privelege; Cross ing the street, boarding a trolley or | alighting from a trolley, on some Of our busy thoroughfares is becoming ldaily more hazardous because viola
 ton of the law and disregard of the rights of the many by the few 1s now coming to be considered the rule of the road. I do not make this charge against all because I believe the great | ma jority Of automobile drivers want | to obey the law and do respect the rights of others and would not take 1 any chance whereby they might 1n- jure their fellow being, but all must
 suffer for the sins of the few unless
 we are willing to help in awakening
 public sentiment and do our part to correct present abuses
 ATr7rncs TNTCT2 E
 CONDITIONS CROW WORSE. | The lower price and rapid increase | in the number and use of automobiles l will soon place a powerful machine in | the hands of almost any person who 1 in the past has been allowed to drive ia gentle old horse on our public streets, persons who, if they should run their horse through the street at the rate of twelve miles per ho1r,
 blowing a horn to warn the public 1 to seek safety, would be arrested IoT reckless driving, put in jail and their same persons will be allowed to drive an automobile that they know nItde | about, either its mechanism or its lla,-
 bility not to do always as you expect it to do or wish it had done, the rate of speed and operation of the machine
 being left largely to the judgment of
 the driver. What can the general
 public expect in the future? It will be necessary to have overhead or SUD way crossings on our busy streets. IL will be necessary for safety to nave
 flashlights to signal trolley cars that
 you desire to board. Unless some | thing can be done to awaken public sentiment, deaths and accidents W1ll increase until finally drastic action
 will be necessary and the innocent
 and 1aw-afbiding automobilist will suf-
 fer for the fools and hogs who should
 have been brought up with a round
 turn and made to obey the law and
 respect the rights of the masses or
 have their license taken from them
 
 point of one who is piqued and sour beSause I have no automobile. have