OPINIONS and
Page 57
Page 58
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE UNFAIRNESS OF PENALTIES FOR MINOR DRIVING OFFENCES.
[45501 On Jubilee Monday Scotland Yard was telephoned as to the erratic driving of a Morris coupe in the neighbourhood of South London. A wireless message resulted in a police car setting out to investigate, and it picked up the reported car and chased it, its speed at one time being estimated at 55 m.p.h.
It turned off the main road into a side street, and turned again from that street into another in such a. manner that another car was driven on to the footpath. By that time the police had gained considerably and they gonged " the chased driver. He abandoned the car after applying the brakes, and it collided with the rear of one of our coaches whilst doing about 20 mph:, smashing the rear panels and the body framework, but not injuring any passenger in the stationary coach.
The driver ran in the opposite direction up the road and down a side street, then, with no obvious follower, he turned around and casually strolled back.
A boy scout had, however, observed him and communicated with a man who arrested him and whom he fought in no friendly manner. The driver of the car that had been forced on to the pavement arrived and gave help, by which time the police arrived.
The culprit was blessed with good fortune in every respect in avoiding serious injury, if not death to other road users. The car was wrecked and the coach was put out of commission for 10 days. He was charged with stealing the car, or with using it without lawful authority; with driving a car without a policy of insurance being in force ; with driving to the common danger, or alternatively with driving without due care.
He pleaded guilty to taking the car without authority ; to driving without a policy of insurance being in force ; and to driving to the common danger. He had two previous convictions, one for ignoring a traffic signal and the second for driving to the common danger, for which he had been fined £5 and for which his licence was endorsed. He was fined &5 for the first offence ; £1 for the second; £5 for the third.
On Tuesday last one of our drivers was fined £5 for exceeding the speed limit. The only real evidence of the police was that the coach went away from .their car when the latter was doing 30 m.p.h..
The writer mentioned this to an interested bystander ., in the Court. He agreed that it was monstrous that such different offences should be treated so similarly in their punishments, and suggested that in future our drivers might just as well " snatch " any available car in the vicinity and drive into the police cars (as long as they avoided personal injury to the officers) when he felt certain that they would be treated leniently as criminals instead of having to face the heavy penalties imposed upon motorists guilty of technical offences.
When an educated man (as he was) makes such a statement, one is forced to the conclusion that not only is the law an ass, but so are those who administer it.
London, S.E.4. F. A. FEIN, THE UNSATISFACTORY NATURE OF VEHICLE TESTS BY POLICE AND INSPECTORS.
[45511 A traveller with samples and having an important appointment was recently stopped by ' four individuals in a motorcar who said that they were police officers and showed tunics under their waterproofs. One spread a mackintosh on the road and crawled under the car, another examined the engine, road wheels, and so forth, then two pushed at the car,while one inside applied the brakes ! At the end of 27 minutes the driver was warned that if he did not have new bearings fitted into the front wheels he would be summoned next time they saiv him. The bearings are Timken taperroller pattern, four months old, fitted according to . the manufacturers' instructions, with a slight release on the adjustment ; this gives a just-perceptible shake at rim and tyre.
If owners are to be at the mercy of police officers and traffic inspectors in respect of mechanical maintenance, surely these verbal threats should be made illegal, and both the police and inspectors should serve a written chit recording their fault finding and requirements.
In a country snowed under with official forms and notices, it is a scandal that operators should have no record of any charge a police officer may choose to make on the maintenance of a vehicle, except a verbal one stated to him second-hand by his driver. The driver may convey the demands and threats incompletely, or inaccurately, and get his master fined the next time the vehicle goesout.
Worse still is the fact that police officers are no more truthful, and accurate than any other member of the community'. If there are to be four of them at work against one driver they can deny having made a foolish cOmplaint (as in the case of our front wheels), so that one cannot shake their credit for being competent, and they can say that their verbal warning embraced any stern they. .choose. It is only knocking one's head against a brick wall for an individual owner to protest against the curse that has enveloped industrial-vehicle owning, but the Press can help. The pathetic thing is that you can see vehicles on the streets by the hundred dropping to pieces and apparently the only ones that are ever stopped are those belonging to people with a record
and reputation like ourselves. DISSATISFIED. London, E.C.2.
AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION TO ASSIST TRADERS.
[4552] rfeel that I am doing something which is of vital importance to British exports in bringing to the notice of your readers an international organization which is devoted to the laudable object of overcoming the present embarrassment to world trade.
I refer to the Comite International des Echanges, of 3, Place du Palais Bourbon, Paris, France. This organization brings together, from time to time, representatives of industry from 67 different nations to discuss ways and means for overcoming the barriers to international trade.
The organization has established research committees to investigate the possibilities of increasing trade in the various countries represented. It publishes a monthly bulletin in which appears an account of the activities of the representatives of the Comite International des Echanges in the different countries throughout the world, and information on any event bearing upon the question of trade.
The second International Congress of Traders will take place on July 13 at Antwerp. The Congress will be preceded by a Conference under the auspices of the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce, and economists of different nationalities will speak on questions of trade, economics and finance.
I strongly advise my fellow traders who desire to assist to obtain further particulars from the secretary, M. Robert Alterman.
WILFRID HILL, Managing Director,
Birmingham. The County Chemical Co., Ltd.