Evening star., 1928-12-16
NEEDLESS DRIVER IS FOUND n
TO BE INCREASING MENACE
New Traffic System Recently Put Into
Practice Here Is Given Description
by Officer.

delibly on the minds of their remainil
engineers that they must never %
where the lives ct people a-S al SCsfkr
the presumption Delng that II an engi
neer we're to f1guresthat he had even
small prospect of leniency in the even
he disregarded signal, why ne nigh
reason that by virtue of being an ol'
employe he might risk one mistake
And that first mistake which he figure
he could get away" with might CO;
the lives of score of passengers.
Precaution General.
We are surrounded on every hand
many reminders of the care taken
governments. city authorities, organic
tions, etc. to safeguard life, limb an
property. Every fire plug. every com
pulsory fire escape, every time we hea
of a bridge being condemned, the con
cealed-weapon law and Thousand
other mechanical contrivances and rule:
all designed to promote advance" safe
ty And last, but not least, the famou
BaumeS law of New York State, which
provides that all persons convicted OF
felony three times shall be sentenced tC
life Imprisonment upon fourth convic-
ton of a felony, the theory being thai
a man who has committed so many
serious offenSeS is not fit person tc
have at liberty. four such offenses being
considered as conclusive proof that he
has no regard for law and authority OF
the rights of others, nor is he likely to
ever have, so they do away with him
for life. q
These things serve to remind us thai
we look forward" to the safety o
others back Then why shoult
one be lenient with a man who has
shown by past acts that he is a "heed-
less" driver?
An old traffic officer Che now has 2
position of authority was talking to
me Just recently about the appalling
number of automobile accidents which
occur every year. He said, 'son, after
you have directed traffic for some years
you don't have to wait for person to
have some bad accident to know he's
reckless driver. How often" he declared.
have I observed people pass my inter-
section in a manner which caused me
to think, there goes an accident looking
for some place to happen You can Just
tcu," he said, "by the way some people
drive that it isn't going to be long
before they have an accident. OF
course" said this veteran, "a great many
accidents are caused by unfortunate
sometimes unavoidable. circumstances,
but in the majority of instances acci-
dents could be avoided by the exercise
of proper care"
Another "old trafic cop has this to
say: "A great many drivers have
figured out, and quite reasonably too.
that the majority of persons who drive
automobiles are careful. conscientious
drivers. and will invariably approach
corners, etc. with the proper care
Then, having figured this out they pro-
ceed to tear around about as they
please and pass intersections without
cares No doubt under the theory that
the other fellow will do the looking
out Well, everything goes all right with
this type of driver until he meets So
other driver equally disposed-then g.
fun begins"
have often in the past been {
tailed land still en- on cccasion)
Emergency Hospital to take reports
any accidents or unusual caS-s W.
may occur. No one co'Ild hive .
detail long and fail to be impr-se"-;
the number Of human wrecks th~4
brought there almost constant
automobile accidents. 1t is c-r
enough to make any one pause and
to consider ways AMI means for
ebatsment of these unfortunate :
dents.
Besides the human injuries. there
another important consideration abc;'