The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-09-15
The State Police and the Highways


there are others who accuse him of
leniency in restoring driving privi-
leges which have been withdrown.
Usually these criticisms are voiced
after an operator whose card has been
returned gets into trouble again. Mr..
Baughman and Mr.. Noble estimate
that only about five percent of those
motorists who have been reinstated by
the officer come back as second offend
ers-and they hold that this figure is
remarkably low. The officer has set
up machinery designed to make it ex-
tremely difficult for one whose card
has been revoked to get it back again.
In the first place application for re-
instatement cannot be made for nine
ty days after the revocation has taken
effect. Then the applicant must pro-
duce the signatures of three response
BILE citizens to a document stating
that, in the belief of the signers, the
offender is capable of driving within
the law. Investigators from the office
of the Commissioner then look into
the applicants habits and record and
check up on the sponsors, often by
means of personal interviews. If the
inquiry results favorably the license
usually is restored.
Some idea of the extent of this par
ticular function of the Office is re-
vealed by last years figures, which
show that more than 10000 penalties
were handed down, ranging from
brief suspensions to permanent revo-
cations. There is growing list
now totaling some 5,000-of licenses
marked permanently revoked" Some
of the former holders are known to be
in the Penitentiary or insane asylums,
while others have developed physical
infrmities which will prevent them
from driving again. Then there are,
among this 5000, a smaller number
marked "never to be reinstated unless
ordered by the courts" Most of these
are the repeaters, those who previous
ly have had their privileges restored
and who for a second time have been
convicted of major violations of the
law.
|, In connection with the work of this
department it may be noted in passing
that the Motor Vehicles Commissioner
believes that speed is responsible for
more of the serious accidents on the
highways today. Mr.. Baughman is
unalterably opposed to any upward
revision of the present speed limit OF
forty miles an hour on the ground
that to increase it would be to handi-
cap police severely in their efforts to
make the roads safe. While admitting
that forty miles is a more or less arbi-
trary figure he insists that it is ne
cessary to have some such standard
and he is opposed to the adoption by
Maryland of the Michigan or Con-
necticut laws which fix no limit but
which prescribe heavy penalties fol-
reckless driving. Reckless driving is
an extremely difficult charge to sus-
tain in court, he asserts. When the
motorist so charged has several
friends along, all willing to swear that
he was not driving recklessly, the
single officers testimony usually does
not prevail and the case is dismissed
When an officer presents a speeding
charge, on the other hand, the magis-
trate does not have to rely solely up
on verbal evidence. The officer may
present the testimony of a speed
| ometer to which is attached an auto
matte device for recording the maxi
mum speed attained in pacing" the
defendant upon the road.
The fast driver-or even the drum
ken driver-may be, in other respects
law-abiding citizen. But the office
of the Motor Vehicles Commission
also is called upon to concern itself
with lawbreaker who falls definitely
| into the category of criminal. He is
the automobile thief and the dealer in
falsifed titles. Usually these two
practices go hand in hand but not al
ways, and the State police and special
investigators must be on their guard
constantly for either or both. Each
year number of stolen cars are re-
turned to their owners as result OF
their Investigations and each year a
number of arrests are made. A special
| squad of plainclothes troopers is kept
busy constantly on work of this type
and civilian investigators also assist
in unearthing frauds or other illegal
practices involving the motor vehicles
code.
1t has been noted that prosecutions
of all motor vehicle code violations
begin in the courts of local magis-
trates or justices of the peace, and
over the findings of these dignitaries
the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles
II