The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-07-20
AS TO AUTOMOBILE DRIVING.


may be very broad in its scope, as
Judge Powers shows in his communlea'
tion. But the danger point is not yet
covered. What The Tribune suggests
is that only those who are versed in
the rules and regulations laid down by
the city. and those who know something
about the handling of automobiles and
have the requisite steadiness Of mind
and nerve should be permitted TO drive
cars having such possibilities for harm
Street car motormen are required
to know their business; they must be
able TO pass an examination as to their
knowledge of regulations and their
general fitness to run ears over tracks
from which they cannot swerve, But
hundreds Of automobiles are turned
over TO men, women, and children who
know little or nothing of power, ma
chiuery. or responsibility, who never
heard of any rules and seemingly
imagine that for two dollars they
bought the right of way against all
other users of the streets. Daily ex-
hibitions OF wanton recklessness find
their most charitable excuse is igno-
rance and incompetence; for no one
would caro- to charge malicious intent
to injure-
The present ordinance may provide
against blockading travel; it may re-
quire that drivers keep to the right
in meeting each other, and run to the
left in passing vehicles going in the
same direction. 1t may fix a speed
limit, and forbid the opening of muf-
flers; but the city cannot afford to
station policeman at every street cor
ner 10 educate automobilists concerning
their duties under the laws, any more
than it could send one out to meet
every rural visitor who comes TO the
city to bet on unseen horse races. The
city cannot supply mortorcycle police
men to keep mufflers closed or TO col
leet speedometer evidence against fast
drivers. But it would seem that some
sort OF standard should be set as to
automobiles.
To run q huge machine of twenty
to sixty horse power, weighing from
one to three tons, out of a salesroom,
explain few levers and brakes, tell
about carbureters and differentials, and
turn it over to an inexperienced engi-
neer, would be considered criminal in
almost every other branch Of traffic.
1t has been said that if men want to
risk the large sums they invest in auto
mobiles, rs well as their own or their
families lives, it is their own affair.
But it is also a serious concern of the
public, for the risk does not all rest
on the buyers contribution to chance,
so long as others are entitled to use
the public highways.
Nor is it as essential to caution the
drivers of moving vans or Job wagons
for the safety Of the public Very
few van drivers are afflicted with the
speed mania, and pedestrians and BIZ
cyclists are able to evade them. Be.
sides, nearly everybody has been accus.
toned to the driving Of horses from
childhood, and the engineering of horse
drawn vehicles is a second nature with
most people. Not so with automobiles.
or any kind of complicated machinery
capable of great speed and great de-
struction. Few people know much
about them even after driving them a
long time, as speed accidents show every
once in a while.
The protection of the public seems
to demand a fixed standard of qualifi-
cations for those who drive automobiles
There should be an ordinance. if per
mitted by the statute, requiring GER
tlficate of sobriety, an examination for
knowledge of traffic requirements and
regulations, showing also a reasonable
sklll In the handling of a simple en-
gine, before the right to drive auto
mobiles is sanctioned. These machines
are becoming so numerous now that
their regulation is a problem in the
solution of which Judge Powers saws
that the Automobile Association is in
terested, Whether by State law or
city ordinance, automobile drivers
should be required to keep sober. to
know and obey the regulations of traffic
on penalty of having their permits re'
voked by the granting power.