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Show AUTOMOBILE DRIVER TO BE PROSECUTED, The Standard is pleased to note tho I resolve of the authorities of Salt Lake to prosecute Jess Gesas, driver of the automobile who caused the death of a man and woman in Salt Lake, on' Saturday night. Tho charge to b'o brought against thc offender will be involuntary manslaughter. Tho seriousness seri-ousness of this tragedy, wo hope, will be brought home to careless automobile automo-bile drivers in Ogden. The Salt Lake papers are taking up tho matter and urging a vigorous piosccution. The Tribune says: A few dayB before tho accident occurred oc-curred The Tribune, uttering a note of warning because tho perils to pedestrians ped-estrians had boon increased by spocd-fng spocd-fng at points where passengers were getting on or off street cars, declared that the vast majority of automobile drivers were careful and considerate but that there was a small minority who were rendering tho streets unsafe. un-safe. The fact that most drivers of motor cars are cautious and anxious to comply with the law makes it all tho more necessary to punish those who disregard the law. These few are constitutionally unfitted to be drivers of automobiles, either because they are afflicted with speed mania, because they lack caution or because they have not the proper regard for human life. The state law .seems to afford ample means of bringing this class of offenders to justice and thus reducing their number to a minimum. A few examples ot exact justice will have a most powerful effect in checking check-ing the reign of terror which they have created in the last few months. Investigation resulting from the automobile auto-mobile disaster of Saturday night reveals re-veals the fact that the city ordinances are not framed in accordance with the state law. Thc Tribune has suggested sug-gested that automobiles should be required re-quired to come to a full stop at points where street cars stop, provided that the auto and the street car are bound in the same direction. In that case the auto' and the street car would be on the samo side of the street and therefore close together, thus inevitably inevit-ably creating an element of danger for pedeatrians should the auto keep moving. It transpires that t,ho state law practically covers this point. It reads: "No person operating a motor vehicle or motorcycle upon a public street or highway in this state shall drive the same past any street car, ii.iniiKin nr rvthor. nasspncpT train while the same is standing still for the purpose of taking on or letting off passengers to or from such car or train." It is doubtful wlfether this . can be made to apply to such a case as that which resulted in the death of Edward Davies and Miss Gladys Mitchell. Mit-chell. They had passed around the rear ot thc street car and were struck by an automobile bound in the opposite oppo-site direction. The driver probably was culpable under the speed provision provi-sion of the ordinance, but it is questionable ques-tionable whether the state law could be employed to stop autoists who are bound in a direction opposite to that of the street car which has stopped. The state law against speeding, however, how-ever, should be able to cope with situations sit-uations of that kind. The police see a difficulty in the strict enforcement of the state law. They say that its enforcement would conjest traffic in the down-town districts. At worst congestion could occur only at a few street corners at certain busy hours. It should be noted, moreover, that the state law requires that autos and motorcycles mo-torcycles should not pass street cars which have stopped only in the event that the street car is standing still 'for the purpose of taking on or letting let-ting off passengers.' If a street car is standing' still for any other purpose the law does not apply." |
