The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-11-29
TRAFFIC ORDINANCE
WITH SHARP TEETH

For the eurbing Of the speed rnInia
In Richmond. Colonel William NJ.
Myers, director of the department Of
public safety. is having prepared by
the city attorney ar ordinance with
such teeth in 1t as. he thinks, will
deter irresponsible persons from
satisfying their thirst for reckless
driving. This paper will he intro
duced at the next meeting Of city
council.
With the first offence, the of
fender, in addition to the imposition
of the fine now provided, would unde-
this proposed Law be required To put
|up bond of $500. to be forfeited
upon second conviction. and he
further subjected TO a revocation Of
his permit 10 operate machine for
minimum period of twelve months
the revocation TO be in the discre
ton OF the Official vested with that
authority; with the second offence.
| the offender. in addition To the fine
and the forfeiture OF the $500 shall
have his permit revoked and none
other will at,any time be granted for
operation in Richmond.
Colonel Myers was stirred yester-
day almost TO Indignation by tho
statement of q prominent citizen that
he had noted tho frequent occurrence
of automobile accidents and had
wondered why the police department
is apparently making no effort to
have the yiolatsrs Of the Law pun
ished.
THE limited number Of men the
depar TN ent had for this work have
, done all they could" Colonel Myers
said. There arc only twenty of them
detailed for the traffic force. These
are worked in three shifts. The rec
oEd, itself hsspeaks their vigilance
/ Notwithstanding the fact that | have
issued positive instructions 10 the
force never to arrest a person Tor the
! first minor infraction Of traffic rules,
but to caution him. point out his err
, ror, note the fact on his permit card
and arrest far the second offence, the
men since January I, this year. have
| brought into police court $3.50 Of
tenders against the traffic ordinances.
They had committed the following
offences:
| "sc1. fast and reckless driving. or
speeding. SIT. operating without
| license: IS, gIaring head lights: so.
operating with mufflers open: S.
| jumping on automobiles in motion;
| l, undue amount OF smoke: t.S4s.
operating without a permit. IL. OBJ
structing Are plugs and fire hose. 50.
without CITY licenses, 90, without
state licenses: 1916, other minor in
fractions of the law
There is frequently much diff
Guilty in establishing in court the fact
that an automobiles has exceeded the
speed limit, For instance, if the of =.
| 6cer is standing on the curb and a
car goes by at rate he knows to be
! in excess Of the limit, his testimony
| in court probably will be of by
that Of the speeder. who says his in
formation about the speed was
secured by the speedometer he was
using. The only thing we can do Is
| 10 use machines with spe edome terS
| to use machines with speedometers
lister without doubt the rate they
were travelling. We have several of
these and We are getting more.
1--WE have done all we could at all
times. Give lis the support of the
courts in imposing heavy fines and
give us additional teeth in the law.
such as is proposed in the ordinance
the city attorney is preparing, and
we will sec to it that the laws arc
oheyed.'