Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-12-22

washington, d. c., Dec. N.--
Through its national headquarters in
this city the National Motorists As
ISOLATION has issued a warning to car
owners throughout the country to the
effect that the utmost care must be
exercised in Offering excuses for ac-
cidents In traffic courts.
DRIVERS who are too eager to offer
alibis arc likely to find themselves
convicted Of crimes" declared Fred
H. Galley. executive secretary Of the
N. M. A. There Is a concerted
movement among magistrates and
judges to deal severely with all
drivers who are summoned before
them, and in an effort to avoid TAX
ing his medicine many a driver finds
himself confessing to some gross
neglect on his own part"
The N. M. A. bulletin shows, for
instance, that in typical State such
as Connecticut II a motorist runs
into another car at curve because
he does not sound his horn he can be
fined fifty dollars, and that If he
tries to escape this penalty by plead
ing that his. horn was not working
he can be fined an additional fifty
dollars for operating a car without
suitable warning device.
According to Galley there is a
double purpose in issuing this warn
ing to drivers. The purpose is not
so much to save the autoist a shak-
fng down at the hands of the
mercenary community officials as to
impress upon the motorist the i'm
portance of removing the grounds for
charges which may be made against
,, him.
"a motorist can be excused for an
occasional omission as regards horn
Ing" he says. but there is no excuse
for a sustained form of violation
such as. driving car with a de-
fective horning device. The officials
are justified in going the limit on
such violations, and, judging from all
reports reaching the n. NJ. A. Office
here. they are.
1.-THE Automobile Club of New
York City, for instance, reports that
when driver was summoned for
falling to stop eight feet away from
a street car that had stopped to dis
charge passengers. and offered as his
alibi the fact that his brakes did not
hold, the magistrate promptly fined
him for driving a car with defective
brakes in addition to filming him for
violating the eightfoot provision.
"The big message in this is that
If the driver had taken steps to re-
| move the sustained violation rep
resented by the defective brakes
there would have been no consequent
| violation in the form Of falling to
stop within a lawful distance of the
street car.
1.-The N M. A. goes farther than to
warn motorists not to get tripped
up by offering excuses. 1t urges
them not to have any excuses at all,
since that Is the only assured way
of avoiding trouble.
when a driver reviews the situa-
ton and contemplates what might
possibly happen in the course of his
motoring he should ask himself
What excuse would offer If some
thing happened? It would instantly
suggest to him certain need for re-
form.
zone driver in Connecticut dis
covered that he was going to offer
the excuse that he had no need Of
the emergency brake as his reason
for not keeping 1t in order. That
got him to specializing as to how
this alibi would take should the
failure CT the service brake involve
him in an accident. He decided to
look up the law on this point and,
finding that he was required to have
two independent sets of brakes in
acceptable condition, lost no time in
having the emergency brake attend
ed to.
when the motorist offers the ex-