The Washington herald., 1913-07-14
MOTORISTS Want
Speed REDUCTION
Association Says Fire Depart
ment Chief and Assistants
Go Too Fast.
PROTEST WILL BE MADE


Motorists Of the District. II wal
learned yesterday. intend to make a
united protest to the Commissioners
against the exemption of the provi-
sions of the trafic regulations gov
erning the speed limit accorded to the
chief of the Fire Department and as
sistants.
A number of minor accidents In
which the automobiles of the Fire De-
partment. driven at breakneck speed
through the crowded thoroughfares.
have figured has aroused the ire OF
hundreds of citizens who narrowly es-
capped being run down.
Accident War Unavoidable.
Last Wednesday the automobile Of one
of the assistant chiefs ran down and in
jured a motorcyclist at Tenth and D
Streets Northwett. Witnesses placed the
blame on the driver of the assistants s
car. They allege that the machine was
being driven over the wet streets at race
speed and that the motorcycle Tder had
not a chance to avoid the accident. That
he was not instantly killed, they assert
is a miracle.
W. s. Duval, counsel for the Washing
ton Motorists Association, who witnessed
the accident, has declared his intentions
Of exerting every effort to obtain the re-
peal of the exemptions extended the Fire
Department Mr.. Duval, in describing the
accident, said:
THE automobile swept west on D Street
into Tenth at a rate of speed certainly
not less than thirty-five or forty miles per
hour, and crossed Tenth, 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
M sta
ing at that point.
TO show the excessive speed at which
the automobile was travelling at the
Tune. although 1t was equipped with
chains on its wheels and the brakes were
apparently hard set, it skidded from the
point of collision at Tenth Street to
within one door of Eleventh and then
turned completely around and faced the
direction from which it came. The only
thing that possibly saved the assistant
chief and his driver from injury and per-
haps death was the lightness Of the We
hicle with which II collided. Had il been
truck or some such vehicle, tie chances
are that all would have been killed out
right
No Need for Speed.
"A very few of our fires ever amount
TO much, the money loss is generally
slight, and in still fewer instances is hu-
man life endangered. There is little need
OF the chief or his assistant arriving at
the scene of the fire before the apparatus
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
"On several occasions / 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 a showdown at every
crossing, and even then it 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
candle. With the fire apparatus it 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 |
dashes into view and one hardly has a |
chance to get out of the way
"Wednesday l heard the auto alarm. |
but not enuogh to attract my attention |
above the other street din until the |
emerged from D Street 1t |
was then too late for any driver or
pedestrian to get out of the way. for it
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
and at the speed il is now
driven / consider 1t more of a menace
TO our public than all the other auto
mobiles put together using our city
streets In the interest of safety it
should be stopped