Jv 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
CARELESS NIGHT DRIVERS. 
Massachusetts Highway Commission Issues a Warning. 
It Will Take 
Summary Action if the Law is Not Complied With. 
Beeause of the many accidents 
that have resulted from improper 
operation of automobiles at night 
the Massachussetts Highway Com- 
mission has issued a warning in 
which it says that it will take 
summary action in all cases im 
which the requirements of safe and 
proper operation are not complied 
with. The text of the warning fol- 
lows: 
A number of accident cases have 
been heard by the Massachusetts 
Highway Commission within the last 
few months which have made plain 
one frequent cause of great danger 
to both automobilists and the public 
in general. That is the operation of 
automobiles when there is not hght 
enough to enable the road and the 
persons using it to be seen clearly, 
at such a rate of speed that the oper- 
ator is not able to stop his car in 
time to avoid a collision. These ac- 
cidents, and there have been many 
of them and. several resulting in 
death, have invariably happened 
when the automobile had no cetylene 
gas lamps lighted. The operator, 
without them, could not see far 
cnough ahead at the speed at which 
he was moving to stop in time. 
Automobiles have collided from 
this cause with derricks, platforms, 
teams going in the same and in op- 
posite directions; have run over foot 
passengers, have even run through 
a board fence and dropped onto a 
railroad track. While there is no 
provision of law requiring the use 
of searchlights, and possibly they 
are not needed in well-lighted city 
streets, the commission feels that it 
should eall the attention of all auto- 
mobilists to the matter, since ®per- 
ators who have come before the 
board have seemed to think that if 
they were upon the right-hand side 
of the road, and if they had the 
lighted lamps which the law does re 
quire, and if they were not operat- 
ing at a greater speed than the law 
permits at that point on the road, no 
fault could be found with them if 
they struck, for example, a foot pas- 
senger who was in the road, and 
who, they claimed, should have heen 
on the sidewalk. 
In one case a foot passenger was 
not seen because of an electric light 
which may have dazzled the opera- 
tor somewhat. Every operator must 
realize that when he has no search- 
lights he cannot see far beyond a 
bright electric hght and runs quick- 
ly into a dark zone. Such conditions 
have caused two deaths, at least. 
The board feels that operators can- 
not be exonerated from blame under 
such circumstanees, and that, wheth- 
er they have searehlights or not, all 
persons are bound to operate at a 
speed which is reasonable and prop- 
er under the conditions which exist. 
And a speed is never. reasonable 
and proper if, under any conditions, 
the operator cannot stop his car 
when he sees an object on the road, 
before he strikes it. If necessary, 
he must stop his car and cease to 
operate when he cannot run it so as 
not to endanger other users of the 
highway who are exercising reason- 
able and due care. 
This rule should be apphed_ not 
only where the streets are imperfect- 
ly lighted, or where one is dazzled 
by an electric light, whether a street 
light. or that of a street car, but 
around corners and curves, or where 
one’s view is obstructed by other ve- 
hicles in passing, or when one can- 
not see clearly because of a fog or 
mist. The board feels compelled to 
make.this announcement at this time 
because of the many reeent acci- 
dents and fatalities in which both 
pedestrians and occupants of auto- 
mobiles have been involved. It de- 
sires, therefore, to give notice to all 
automobilists that it will take sum- 
mary action in all cases coming be- 
fore the commission when it devel- 
ops that the foregoing requirements 
for safe and proper operating have 
\ 
not been complied with. 
Ach! Himmel! 
Robbie ran into the sewing-room 
and eried: 
‘“‘Oh, mamma! There’s a man in 
the nursery kissing Fraulein.”’ 
Mamma dropped her sewing and 
rushed. for the stairway. 
‘April fool!’ said Robbie, glee- 
fully.’= ‘‘It’s only _papa.’’—Every- 
body’s Magazine. 
“Oh, why should the spirit of 
mortal be proud’’—even the best of 
us have slipped on a banana peel. 
It keeps the society doctors busy 
nowadays hunting up new diseases 
that the common people do not have. 
Everything passes him who waits. 
