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The Dangers of Motor Night Travelling. LIVELY JOURNEY 13Y DR NAUNTON DAVIES. Sir,—There is a great outcry against motor cars. Their sins, according to some, are un- countable. Has it ever struck the people who raise the outcry-sometimes justifiably and at others not-that the sins are not all on one side? Let me furnish them with a few episodes which may be placed on the other side of the account. The present week has been very dark at nights. Between eight and nine o'clock on Tuesday night I was driving a motor-car from Edwinsford to Carmarthen, with three lamps burning, and when near Goitre Farm came suddenly upon two women in a trap. Now, these good people carried no lights, and knew no more about driving than a child. They did not even shout to warn me of their pre- sence, but came on with stolid stupidity until they were nearly abreast of my car when they did what women of this class nearly always do —pulled at their horse until he backed into the car, smashed its wings, broke out of his harness, left the trap on the road, and dis- appeared in the darkness—the two ladies giving chase and shouting for him to stop in a manner that proved to me that they were not hurt. At the time of the accideut-no, I will not say "accident," because it was due to the culpable negligence of the owner of the lampless trap-I was driving very slowly, otherwise the result might have been ex- tremely serious. I was about to proceed on my journey when two farmers came along in a trap without lights, and both were drunk. Within five minutes of this unpleasant eperience I met a third vehicle, in which a stable lantern shone dismally, as an emblem of the miserable dis- position which would rather risk destruction than ensure life at the price of a pair of carriage lamps! Having reached Llandilo, I paid a visit to the chief-constable, related the circumstances of my journey, and asked him to assist me in prosecuting these people for driving without lights. But, to my astonish- ment, I found the bye-laws of the county allowed people to drive without lights on the darkest night, providing that they did not drive beyond a walking pace; but-listen to the absurdity of the thing-how is a would-be prosecutor to say at what pace a trap is travelling when it is clothed with the invisi- bility anu security from detection of dark- ness ? Yet another experience the same night befel me. It was now 10.30., and near White Mill. I came upon a herd of cattle, filling the road, half-a-dozen men driving them along, and not even the glow of a lighted pipe to warn me of their presence. How can people expect to avoid accidents if they do these foolish things? It is all very well to blame motorists, but here we have conditions for the causation of half-a-dozen accidents, and they would inevitably have happened but for my painful carefulness. My experience has proved to me that for every act of recklessness on the part of a motorist a dozen instances of ncompetence in riding and driving horses may be found. However, the proportion of culpability on either side does not mend matters, and it is my regard for the safety of those who use horses (as I do myself), as well as for those who drive motor-cars, which prompts me to direct attention to the unsatisfactory state of the bye-laws—if they are such as I am told. In the interests of all who have to travel at night —whether in a cartv carriage, or motor-car, or whether they are drivers of cattle, sheep, or any kind of vehicle-there ought, surely, to be no hesitation on the part of the public authorities to so frame their bye-laws as to compel aii alike to carry efficient lights. I am, etc., NAUNTON DAVIES. Sept. 15th, 1904.

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