Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1920-11-26
expense of the Office last year was
The Drunken Driver

expense of the Office last year wa
$4,000.
The Drunken Driver
The most difficult feature of lcens
ing drivers is to know about the fell
lows who are not fit to drive anyway
the drunken and carlessly reckless, Nc
man can determine from the looks oil
a person whether he can be trusted
to drive or not, and we have the most
trouble with those fellows who can't
stop drinking long enough to steer a
car. The there is the reckless chap
and you sometimes have to let him &c
a long while before you can get any
thing on him A menace, too, is the
impatient man, who can't wait or re-
strain himself, and he is usually in
more or less trouble with his car. In
regard to the drunken fellow, we have
questioned to what extent he is in the
habit of using Intoxicating liquor and
if he is honest enough to admit that
he does occasionally use it, we are apt
to have no trouble with him. 1t is
the fellow who swears he never touches
it you have to beware Of
There were 1000 accidents reported
i'll this state last year but | assure
you that we had a good many more
that were not reported. have been
known to suspend a license simply be-
cause an accident was not reported
| waited sometime before starting in
on this policy but finally | read in the
papers of a case in St. Adams that
came well within the law, and | pub
lished quite extensively that | suspend
ed the mans license simply because he
failed to report his accident My mail
was Immediately so crowded with re-
ports that I had to hire another book
keeper l find it is a good plan to
advertise in newspapers what | want
the people to know
How Accidents Happen
How do accidents happen? Minor
accidents will happen to any man but
| claim that 80 per cent of the auto
mobile disasters could be prevented
by careful driving and good judgment.
Take sideswiping for instance. When
two cars meet on a highway, it would
not be possible for them to sideswipe
if they were both where they belong.
There is no need of cars coming to-
gether unless someone is wrong. Both
drivers always declare that their cut
side wheels were in the grass, but you
can't make two cars come together
when they both have their ontsido
wheels in the grass. When there IS Il
collision between two automobiles at
street intersection, somebody is to
blame. What will prevent streec in
tersection collisions is the law OF the
right hand and the control of the car.
The fellow on the right has the rlPht
of way. Another good place for an
accident is on a curve, when one car
tries to pass another and meets one
coming from an opposite direction.
Never try to pass car on top OF
hill, if YOU are impatient or want to
90 a little faster than the machine
ahead of you; because you can't see
what is coming up from the other side
of the hill.
Step on the Gas in Country
An automobile driven carefully and
under good control is the safest vehicle
in which man ever rode, but not so
driven, it is a vehicle of destruction.
The first rule for driving is this Have
y ouh car under control everywhere,
look out more in the street than Ill the
open country Speed is not the test OF
Some people think speed
is one thing in town and another up
on country road; but he sure to
respect the village limits and be care
full to take your foot off the accelerator
when YOU approach them. II you
have an open road in front OF you
and it is nice going, step on the gas
and let her go if YOU want to, but slow
down on turns Twenty-siX people
were killed in automobile accidents
last year and that number was too
large when added to the inevitable
deaths from other causes. Railroad
fatalities are decreasing, but 1t IS
horrible fact that automobile iatali-
ties are on the increase. There were
$4,000 of them in the United States
last year and the reports from them
show that grade crossings are the most
dangerous spots in the road. No one
was killed in Vermont on a grade cross
ing this year. but, whenever man got
into trouble on a railroad crossing and
escaped alive, suspended his license,
in order to impress upon Others the
fact that if the locomotive spares them,
Harry Black will see that they lose
their licenses if they don't lose their
lives. Drive safely for your own sake
and the sake of others.