Middletown transcript., 1916-06-24
IDDLETowN, DEL. JUNE "A 1916
AUTO SPEED MADNESS

TOUR or five people killed by autos
l daily in Detroit; Philadelphia's
iuqgernaut auto-trucks slaughtering
young and old; the streets of New York
CITY almost as deadly as a battlefield
So it goes in this mad age, everywhere
human life is being needlessly sacrificed
to the speed mania.
But Delaware is not far behind. Last
Sunday six persons were injured in
Wilmington, three IN New Castle, and
three near Middletown. A few days
ago at Mt. Pleasant two cars going at
high speed rushed together, killing one
and injuring several. They were both
coming from different directions to-
wards a corner, and altho each saw the
other, neither slowed up, and frightful
smash took place, one auto turning
over three or four times
In nearly every case the killing or the
manning is the result of a want OF
ordinary care or total disregard of the
laws amounting to crime.
Nearly everybody violates the law and
takes unnecessary and dangerous risks,
and when the chance combination of
two, or worse yet, of three factors,
arises, then collision results.
Last week a team near here needlessly
cut in between an auto and an oil
wagon, the horse SHE'D, and but that
the careful auto driver had stopped his
auto, fatal mix up would have hap
pened instead Of an auto damaged by
the plunging horse.
Last Sunday the writer saw on the
road between Middletown and old st.
Anne's Church, typical illustration of
the foolish and deacly chances auto
drivers are constantly taking. From
the south an auto was speeding towards
carriage ahead of it; from the north
another auto was rushing towards the
carriage in the opposite direction.
Auto No. 2 could see for a half mile
ahead just what was coming and that
the three vehicles would probably pass
at about the same point But instead
of slowing up trifie and allowing auto
No. to pass the carriage, auto No. 2
clapped on more speed and wickedy
taking the chances of killing half
dozen people, shot diagonally in between
the oncoming carriage and auto.
Had the horse bolted a quarter as
much as he did in the case given above,
there would have been horrid wreck
of two autos and a carriage all filled
with passengers and probably sicken-
ing loss Of Iife-all because of a criminal
speed mania that disregards all care, all
precaution, and takes every chance of
disaster and death.
The law is habitualy and almost uni
versally violated as to speeding, slowing
at corners or when passing other We
hicles, and the result is the highways
are today almost as dangerous for We
hicles, especially carriages, and for
persons afoot, as the track of railroad.
Forty-fve to sixty miles an hour is
common thing-men boast of their reck-
less breaches of the law as though they
were something to be proud of
There is but one remedy-the Jail.
Fines are absurdly inefficient, certain
wealthy auto plungers who habitually
break all speed laws, being rather proud
of the idiotic pranks for which their
money pays. Give this smart gentry
who so lightly put in peril the lives and
property of others few months, or
years in Jail to think over their deeds,
and they will be cured of their selfish
folly.
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