Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-11
SPEED Of FIRE AUTOS
| DECLARED SENSELESS
Writer Sees No Necessity for
Excessive Haste at Expense
Of Safety.
To the Editor OF The Star:

10 the Editor OF The Star:
While you are conducting your very
laudable campaign for safe streets, would
it not be well to call attention to the
authorities to the perfectly senseless ex-
cessive speed at which the automobiles
of the fire department chief and his as
sistant are driven? Wednesday I wit
messed most distressing accident at
10th and ID streets northwest. where the
| assistant chiefs automobile, driven
over a wet and slippery roadway, collided
with a motor cyclist. and hurled him not
twenty feet, as noted in your paper, but
fully seventy-five. That the accident was
not fatal is simply a miracle.
The automobile swept west on ID street
into 10th at a rate of speed certainly not
less than. thirty-five forty miles per
hour. and crossed 10th, at all times a
busy thoroughfare. striking the unfor-
tunate victim and hurting him from the
center of these two intersecting streets
to the front of the shoe store, against
the curb and another automobile standing
at that point.
To show the excessive speed at which
the automobile was travelling at the
| time, although It was equipped with
chains on it's wheels and the brakes were
apparently hard set, it skidded from the
point or collision at 10th street to within
one door of 18th, and then turned COM
pleteiy around and faced the direction
from which 1t came. The only thing
and his driver from injury and perhaps
death was the lightness of the vehicle
! with which it collided. Had it been a
truck or some such vehicle, the chances
are that all would have been killed out
right.
very few Of our fires ever amount
to much. the money loss is generally
slight and in still fewer instances is hui
| man lie endangered. There is little need
of the chief or his assistant arriving at
the scene of the fire before the appara tus.
| for he could do next to nothing and the
apparatus is equipped with experienced
| firefighters amply able to cope with the
situation until the chief or his assistant
| arrives.
Speed Should Be Curbed.
| On several occasions l have watched
the speed with which the chief and his
| assistant dashed through our streets,
and have shuddered at the possibilities
| resulting from such speed 1t does seem
| to me that this speed should be curbed
| and reduced not to exceed twenty miles
per hour, with showdown at every
1 crossing, and even then II would be dan
gerous in the business parts of the city
| Otherwise we may expect repetitions OF
| Wednesdays accident at any time.
| The game simply Is not worth the can
die. With the fire apparatus 1t is diff
| ferent; they cannot go much over fifteen
| miles per hour on the level. and there
| is a clatter of hoofs that arouse and
| notify pedestrians and users OF the roads
The automobile silently and swiftly
1 dashes into view and one hardly has a
| chance to get out of the way
| Wednesday I heard the auto alarm bu,
| not enough to attract my attention above
| the other street din until the automobile
| emerged from ID street. 1t was then toe
| late for any driver or pedestrian to get
out OF the way, for 1t was upon him.
/ The automobile of the chief or the
assistant chief of the fire department Is
| just as dangerous to the public when
| driven at excessive speed as any other
automobile, and at the speed 1t is now
| driven / consider ii more of a menace
| to our public than all the other auto
| mobiles put together using our city
| streets. In the interest of safety il
should be stopped. W S. DUvAIlLA