Bingham Bulletin | 1920-01-07 | Page 6 | Adequate Punishment for Motorist who Kills and Then Speeds Away

j " - " ' ' ' ' Adequate Punishment for Motorist Who 'Kills and Then Speeds Awar. By LAMBERT WALTERS, Laredo, Texas. ' No punishment could be too severe for an automobilist who kills a person and then deliberately drives away in the hope of escaping. The laws of Texas make this a felony, but there should be a punishment to fit the crime. What is needed is a drastic law, fixing a punishment as severe as can be fixed under the Constitution, for speeders' who crash into a pedestrian or another car, kill one or more persons. and then speed away The law should be so severe that the first person caught after it went into effect would form an example that would deter motorists in the future fu-ture from taking any chances and, when they do have an accident, from shirking responsibility by running away. Traffic accidents are largely due to pedestrians. But the accident that happens out on the open road is, with very few exceptions, the fault of the motorist. I hope to see the Texas law in this respect strengthened, and I think every state in the Union would be doing a general good to humanity -by passing laws against this practice as drastic as they can be niade under the Constitution. '