Dresden enterprise and Sharon tribune. (Dresden, Tenn.) 1907-1997, 1921-08-05
SPEED CAUSE OF
!. ROAD ACCIDENTS
Auto Tourist Who Has Driven
More Than $4,000 Niles Gives
Result Of Observations.
NO TWO GOOD ROADS ALIKE
"Don't Take Strange Road at More
Than 20 Miles an Hour" His Ad-
Vice-Car Doesn't Drive Twice
Alike in Any Roadway.

| Little Falls, N. Y.-Archie Baker
claims to be a confirmed automobile
tourist of long and varied experience
He says he has driven upward Of so,
900 miles in his 1916 seven-passengel
six; and the car looked it when Archie
and his family pulled out beside the
road just west Of Small Gulf, between
Little Falls and Herkimer, to camp
In one of the most noted of Mohawk
valley tourist parking places.
Baker and his wife and a twelve
year-old son and ten-year-old daughter
said that touring agrees with them.
They gave the impression of having
an independent income.
MY experience is that a lot of
tourists don't know very much, and
don't stop to learn anything, either"
said Mr.. Baker. 1.-THE result is, they
have a lot of hard knocks. When we
were coming into New York state,
about $50 miles from here, we turned
on down a side road to camp by Lake
Erie. There was an outfit down by
the lake which claimed they had had
lot Of hard luck. They dished a
wheel; they tore up tire; they lost
q tent Off the back end of the load !,
they slept cold nights, and they were
just about ready to quit. But,
shucks they won't quit. Nobody
ever does quit once the family have
gone to touring dght--the way it
can be DONE Their dished wheel In
terested me. The man claimed he
didn't drive fast, but he skidded.
caught the weight of the car on the
right rear wheel, and smashed it all
a-blim.
"This was on a strange road, out in
Indiana, he said, and it sure did look
all right. But 1t smashed him, and
1t was pure luck that he didn't roll
over. / asked him about the kind Of
road, and he couldn't tell me; said
II was pretty muddy, but had gravel
on it too.
"There you are! He smashed up
and was taught lesson, and didn't
know what the lesson was. The fact
is there are more than zoe different
kinds of good roads in the United
States. I've been on most kinds. I'll
recite few of them-mountain
contract roads, stone water-bound
concrete roads, oil waste roads,
gravel, sand and clay, broken down
stone roads, cut and fill crushed
stone surface, cinder, shell, bank
gravel, beach gravel, desert two
crackers, and so on.
mo Two Good Roads Alike"
"No two good roads are alike.
Good and careful a driver as l am,
! darn near rolled over out west Of
Salt Lake City last summer, skid
ding in the dust-dry fluffy dust.
Why, If I'd been driving 20 miles
instead Of careful IL miles an hour,
we'd rolled end over applicant, and
it was good road, If you knew how
to drive 1t. Yes, sir. There is not
a road in all this United States, not
the best, widest, finest, smOothest
road, that isn't treacherous If mans
not used to it. l don't mean Wild
eyed hummers, but just common folks
like me.
"If you don't believe 1t, you study [
the road accidents you come upon as !
you ride across the country. Half
the skidding is done where the road
type changes where a man leaves
concrete and hits OIL surface or where
he leaves the waterbound stone for
hard pan.
"a car doesn't drive twice alike on
any roadway from New York to San
Francisco. l know, because I've made !
the trip. Where do tourists coming
east bang up with trouble? It's when
they come off bad roads into good
roads. You take the western part Of
New York state, and people leaving
the good roads Of Ohio after crossing : :
the little neck Of Ohio don't have half
the trouble that people coming east
have when they hit the fancy New
York brand of roadways.
Job for Nearest Garage Man.
'Now it's the same way with CALI
fOrnia. You take a man who's run out n
Of Nevada or eastern California desert
roads over the Sierra divide into the
paved ways Of California, he feels re-
ieved. He's on good roads at last.
He's been careful for 1000 miles. He
wants to step on 'er. He does. He
hits a sharp turn, and bingO! The
nigh wheels drop into the sand, and
here's big job for the garage in the
nearest town.
Particularly speaking, let me say
hat the man who drives aspeeding
yer road he has never driven be-
ore invites death or disaster. I'm
II right on my old home road. / hit
p 40 miles an hour right along If
know the road My car'll stand 1t.
tut on a strange road, let me say, I'm
ne Of those 15-mller boys. l didn't
ave to have an accident to learn that.
was just looking at the accidents
nd figuring on them that gave me
he warning l needed.
snow loOkt! Remember during the
avs when cars were delivered by
he thousand over the highways, and
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