The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1935-12-26
State PGtrOLnaen
On Lookout For
Reckless DriUers
Intensive Campaign Expected To
Continue; Many Prominent
People Loose Permits

Aggressions against reckless driv-
ers are taking driving licenses from
many of them, Capt. c. D. Farmer
of the state highway patrol an
nounced in Raleigh, Friday.
The department set out for these
drivers in November. The first
losses of licenses were reported a
few days ago. 1t takes two offences
to put these drivers down. They may
be caught in wild driving once, but
If there is no liquor in it they get
another trial. But two sins will cost
them their license.
The department means after the
first of the year to make daily re-
ports, if possible, on the court con-
viction of these drivers. The public
will get their names for it's protec-
ton. The last list of revocations car
ried about 215 drunken drivers,
several reckless ones and a trio of
killers.
Some of these punished drivers
are prominent public men, but they
lose along with the others. Two doc
tors have given up their driving
permits. They will be horribly ham
dicapped in their practice without a
machine. They may be driven by a
chauffeur, but they must not put
their hands to the steering wheel.
The big reduction in deaths on
the highways in November may
have been one of the early results
OF this campaign. There is wild war
on drunk and daring drivers. The
highway patrol head thinks the dig
nifed publication of the names will
help more than fines by the court.
No public man wishes it known
that his driving license has been
taken from him. The printing of
the one woman's name as a lost Ii
centiate had a good effect on the
female of the species.
The campaign against these
DRINKS, Mr.. Farmer says, is just
beginning. The reckless drivers are
more plentiful than the inebriates
and road users think more danger
Gus. They are harder to catch and
more difficult to convict. Before the
1885 general assembly amended the
former laws there was an arbitrary
rate of speed that was called dam
gerous, As miles an hour and more.
Now it takes more than As miles to
convict. The highway patrol must
make good on its evidence. It must
show that there was danger when
men are pulled off the roads for
miSuses of those machines. There
were "a deaths in November which
appear to have been without any
contributing cause beyond the reck-
less driving of the man who held
the wheel.
There were others on certain
stretches of road recognized as dan
gerous, but these "a were killed
without any observance cause be-
yond the suspicious rate of speed at
which the cars were driven. The de-
parment is going after all these.
To date approximately 500 driv-
ers have lost their licenses by act Of
the courts. The fall season of great
est driving activity, naturally pro-
duces revocations, but the big fig
ures look small when it is recalled
that there are about 100000 cars in
North Carolina, not to mention the
drivers who come into the state and
lose their privileges of using the
states roads.
It will take several months to as
certain whether the campaign is
producing the results hoped for it.
Informal returns for December
show a continued reduction. There
were 131 deaths in October, but
only 90 in November which should
have been an even more murderous
30 days. There were lis killed in
November, 1884, and lit in Deem
Der. The statistics tabulated to date
show a big reduction, but the
Christmas killings are not due until
this week.