Evening star., 1948-09-24
Slow Drivers Under Fire

To the Editor of The Star:
Driving car is dangerous business at best
especially on the open road Fortunately the
speeder, reckless driver and other human haz-
ards in most places have been adequately pro-
vided for in the trafic laws.
But there is one menace who still continues
to operate, much to the detriment of our
nerves and sometimes to the risk of our lives.
In only few localities are there traffic laws to
restrain him. I refer to the excessively slow
driver.
This pest chooses a two-lane highway, pref
erably with plenty of hills and curves, and
usually on a busy day. If the speed limit hap
pens to be As miles an hour, he settles down to
somnolent 25 On four-lane roads, he in
variably chooses the left-hand lane He is stone
deaf to the horn appeals of drivers behind him
who want to pass The line of cars behind him
grows longer and longer and the drivers more
exasperated. Sooner or later some thoughtless
sOul-0r maybe one driven to temporary in
Sanity-is sure to try to pass on hill or curve.
Usually he gets away with it, but tragedy some
times may result. But the SLOW poke driver is
legally innocent of any part of a resulting ac-
cident. In town, instead of head-on collisions
we have traffic lights missed, gasoline wasted on
account of the slow driver.
Not long ago I was a~passenger in car
driven by a friend of mine. We were driving
along Route "a four-ane road to Richmond
At the time this incident occurred we were
passing slow-moving truck and our car was
well inside our lane. Coming toward us was an
ancient jalopy in the center lane doing about
80 miles an hour. Suddenly from behind him
driver swung out, crossed the center line, and
headed straight for our car. Only very skill
full handling by my friend averted probably
fatal accident. If there had been one, of course
the driver who crossed the line would have
been at fault But should not the snail whom
he passed have been held equally guilty?
To remedy this extreme form of driver dis
courtesy and lack of consideration for fellow
motorists, 1t seems to me there should be min
lmum speed limits as we'll as maximum as
there are in some places. While any limit is
arbitrary, IS miles an hour seems like a rea-
Sonaele limit on the road land even this is
slow considering that the maximum usually is
SO. On four-lane highway there should be no
minimum but slow drivers should receive
tickets for being in the left-hAnd lane.
I have always thought that a driver who
does not wish to drive any faster than snail's
pace has no business on the open highway. He
should drive around city park or take a
stroll. Certainly, no one driver who happens
to like crawling should yet the pace for a
dozen or more drivers behind him. I think
such driver, far from being safe driver, is a
greater menace than the speeder.
In closing, I'd like to ask our good friends
from Virginia one question in semitacetious
vein: Does the law over there require you to
have governor on your cars or do all drivers
from that State just like to creep down the
street on the left side? OF all the poky, ex-
asperating drivers in these United States, Vir-
ginia drivers are by all odds the worst
EXHAUSTED MOTORIST