Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1912 — Speed Limit Law Is Really Only Remedy [ARTICLE]

Speed Limit Law Is Really Only Remedy

By W. O. JENKINS

Day after day the modern juggernauts sweep through our crowded streets, claiming their human victims without a hand effectually raised in protest. The other day in Chicago a young and talented girl, just budding into womanhood, dn her way to the high school where she was soon .to finish her work to fit her for life’s duties, was suddenly hurled to the pavement and her crushed and bleeding body hardly removed before life was extinct. ' The coroner’s jury exonerated the driver of the automobile. Perhaps the verdict was legally correct. It was an accident. But

hurtianity cries out against the conditions that make such accidents possible. : Certain kinds of accidents have occurred in the past that today are impossible because the conditions under which such accidents could occur have been eliminated. The locomotive engineer, when he has a warning signal of danger, is required to have his engine under perfect, control. This means that he can proceed only at such speed that when the danger is realized his engine can be brought to almost an instant stop, and th is on a private right of way. Why are these life destroying engines allowed to use the crowded public highways at a speed absolutely beyond the control of the operator, and our newspapers publishing’the death list of their victims day After-day. -A speed limit law consistent with safety'and the strict enforcement of that law is the only remedy.