Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1922-07-07
AUTOMOBILES AND DANGER

Last Friday the community escaped q shock from .
tragedy, when a little child barely escaped death from run
ming uIJcr The wheels Of an approaching automobile, and
Is sustaining bruises that to say the least are very painl..
But for the fact that the driver Of this car was going
cautiously, there might have been a pail Of sorrow cast
over the town, and aching hearts over the mangled baby
form of the little child who would probly have been crush
cd under the wheels.
Right here a lesson should be taught and deeply taken
to heart, by both pedestrians and automobile drivers,
Children should De instructed and re instructed as to the
daugcrousness OF crossing the street with out being Ger
tain that no car is within close enough range to do them
harm. There is a tendency among the children of the
town to play in the street where traffic is compelled to
pass, and this is a perilous practice that places them
where an accident more or less serious is APT to Occur
at any time. Their fine disregard OF the extreme dan
gcrous of getting in the way Of traffic is due largely to
thoughtlessn,ss, and their elders should be panstaking
in admonishing them to regard this danger. This ac-
cuent which has Just occurred is not the first of its kind
that has happened in Macors and in nearly every cas-.
1t has been ON account of some little child who has I'M
thoughtedly run in the path of an approaching car. Just
a few weeks ago, a little girl ran across the Atreet almost
under the wheels OF an approaching car, while the specla-
tors stood petritled, expecting to be compelled to res
cue a mangIed form, ana but Tor the presence of mird OF
the driver, who, though frightened at the impending ac-
cldent, veered into the ditch, this would have been the
case. Parents, instruct your children that moving cars
arc dangerous. before it is everlastingly too late.
But though the children are amazingly thoughtless as
to the danger concerning compact with cars, the only mel
ace to safety in this regard does not lie in this direction
for the speed fiend is rampant here, and stands a constant
threat to public safety. In the cases cited, had the chill
drcn in their thoughtlesSnesS have made a dash before tn,
car manipulated by one Of these, there would have been
no chronicle of near accidents, and no parents shudder
ing over what might have been, but the tlutter of white
crepe from the door knob, the flower laden white cas-
kct, and silent weeping at the little grave. The greatest
menace to public safety is this tendency of automobilists
to show speed and defy danger in the use of their cars
With them human life is cheap-their own along witt
that of others, but if they care little for their own safet,
as to life and limb, for PHYS sake let them not take it TO
granted that everybody feels the same way, and hazar,
the safety of all who cross their paths. Society de
mands that each member of it conduct himself so as t.
conduce the safety of the other members, and it has
right to rebel at such wanton recklessness as is practices
by many of the speed loving drivers of automobiles.
> Macon has been s~ingularly and almost miraculousl
o spared from mishaps accruing from automobile accidents
but this does rot argue in favor of recklessness, nor doe
it means that it is immune to the horror of a tragic an
a., ~blighting accident brought about by the too SNOWY hand
\ ing of an automobile.