WHAT CAN BE DONE IN BIRMINGHAM TO STOP RECKLESS DRIVING OF AUTOMOBILES WHICH RESULTS IN CONSTANT KILLING OR MAIMING? * Careless Drivers Take Bloody Toll of Life And Limb During Past Week _ | ••••••••••••••••••••*••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••« One Is Dead and Eighteen Injured, Several of Whom Are in Hospitals and May Die MOTORCYCLES ARE EQUALLYINVOLVED WITH AUTOMOBILES List of Casulties for Week, While Showing Some That Were Un avoidable, Show Many Re sulting From Criminal Carelessness By RICHARD F. l/USSIER A record not unlike the casualties- of a battle in one of the South American repuolics is presented for the past week as the result of the havoc automobile and motorcycle speeders have made in Birmingham. In all, “the grisly toll,” as the neophyte would say, was: One person killed and 18 injured, some of whom, will die dur ing the past seven days of bacchanalian joy-riding in the streets of the Magic City. It all began last Saturday afternoon when three young men, Walter Meseroll, H. C. Brown arid Nathan Lowenstein, all riding motorcycles, met in a collision at high speed with an automobile of the Birmingham Ice Factory at Avenue E and Twenty-first street. The result was that Nathan Lowenstein was killed. He was a young man 22 years of age, very pop ular and was the city salesman of the Birmingham Macaroni company. His par ents living in Indiana were prostrated by the shock of the tragic death of their son. In the same accident Meseroll and Browji were also very severely injured. None Reported Sunday On Sunday, for some strange reason, all the automobiles and motorcycles held to the road and with miraculous adroitness avoided killing or maiming any pedes trians. No one was reported Injured in any way for the Sabbath day, although the following morning repair cars from the garages were seen on their way to Mount Pinson road to bring back two wrecked automobiles which by some freak of fortune had failed to kill the occu pants when they turned over. However, on Monciay tilings started briskly and early, for Joe Orso, a mes senger boy employed by the Postal Tel egraph company, took the count when an automobile driven by J. J. Miller and owned by the Florence Taxicab com pany, ran him down at First avenue and Nineteenth street. The accident occurred after midnight. But it was in the afternoon of the same day that the tragedy of the week happened for Mrs. O. T. Dozier, wife of the w-ell known physician, was run dow-n while walking to her home on the South Highlands at Avenue H and Tw'enty-see ond street by ail unknown automobile demonstrator, who was speeding, it was stated by expert automobile men, at no less than 60 miles an hour. Mrs. Do zier was knocked dowm by the car and suffered a broken arm and limb, also severe contusions all over the body. She was unconscious for many hours and even at this moment it is not certain that she will recover from her injures. Cruel and Kevolting The accident to Mrs. Dozier was par ticularly cruel and revolting. The per son who was driving the large Hudson touring car that struck Mrs. Dozier stopped, following the accident, as soon as he could and walked to where the elderly lady lay unconscious in a pool of iblood. There were several spectators there and they only entreated him to place the injured woman in his automo bile and hurry her to medical attendance. But this young man gazed for one mo ment on the result of his recklessness and with blanched face turned and ran for his machine and speeded away. He Is now in hiding. Wednesday had to have its quota of accidents, for R. F. Bostick, a contrac tor, left his buggy and horse standing In the early morning hours at Twrenty siT.th street, south, between Tenth and Kleventh avenues and W. R. Lawrson, •ged 22, a mechanic, coming down the •teep hill toward the city without lights at great speed, crashed into the buggy, smashing it up as well as his motorcycle. Mr. Dawson is at present in St. Vincent’s hospital, suffering from a fractured ekull. In the afternoon of the same day, for a bit of variety, a man named J. Hanna had his horse run away with him on the other side of Red mountain, which re sulted in his being taken to the South Highland infirmary, where he is still a boarder. ITis injuries are mostly on his bead, which was badly bruised. Thursday night the automobile of Dr RAISE LICENSE TAX AND INCREASE FINES, SUGGESTS HARDING Use Extra License Money to Put on Larger Motor cycle Police Squad in the City "There is no doubt but what some thing will have to be done about this automobile speeding," said President W. P. G. Harding of the Chamber of Commerce, when asked for an opinion. "It is actually dangerous to cross the streets in some of the residence dis tricts. The only practical solution that I see is to maintain a large enough mo* torcycle squad of police to keep a con stant watch. "I should think it would be a good idea to raise the license for automo biles and then when the next legislature meets have the law changed so that the city would get a larger per cent of it, the city to take this extra money an^ use it toward employing a larger mo torcycle squad. Of course the speeders operate almost exclusively outside of the business district where there are few policemen and the only way to handle them that I can see is a large and efficient motorcycle squad. "The next step is then to give them such fines when they are arrested that they will feel it. If necessary, I should think the law should be amended so as to allow the recorder to assess bigger fines. The majority of automobile speeders are wealthy. Of course there are many who are not, but I say the most of them are. Now a man with a lot of money don't care if his chauffeur is arrested for speeding and he is fined $10 or $15. The law should be so that a man like/his would have to pay large enough fine to make him wince and after that he would be care ful.” Frcshies From Judge. “Ah!” says the visitors in the college town, noticing the long file of young men parading about the campus. “Some raw recruits?” “Yea and no,” explained .the resident. “They’re what you might call rah-rah re cruits.” and Mrs. S. F. Nash struck a telephone pole near Bessemer. The automobile was badly smashed up, and both Dr. and Mrs. Nash were seriously bruised in the acci dent. Crash on Pinson Road In the earl} hours of Friday morning, Samuel DeBardeleben was with a party of friends on Mt. Pinson road. In going around a slight curve the car left the road and rolled over twice, crashing through a barbed wire fence. The auto mobile was completely wrecked, DeBarde Jeben was badly injured and his four com panions suffered slight injuries. Eater in the same morning Will Hamil ton and Defoe Davis, a negro, crashed into each with their motorcycles at Ave nue F and Nineteenth street. Both were removed to the Hillman hospital, where it is said they wdll recover. And again an hour or so later the auto mobile driven by Dr. A. F. Toole of Alta mont road collided with the automobile of Mrs. S. D. Weakley at Whitaker street and Highland avenue. Miss Margaret Storey and Barclay Storey of Anniston, who were riding in Dr. Toole's automo bile, were thrown violently to the ground by the collision and Miss Storey is still in St. Vincent’s hospital in a precarious condition, due to internal injury in her head. In the afternoon another hoice accident was reported, the second during the week, Mrs. Leona Freeman of 1404 Eleventh ave nue, north, was very severely injured when the horse she was driving became frightened at a street car, and bolting, threw Mrs. Freeman to the road, where she was picked up unconscious. The crew of the street car which frightened thi horse did not stop, and the unconscious Mrs. Freeman was picked up by a negro in a buggy and taken to Warner ast the traffic, officers at low speed. “Either there 1b some discrimination or the law is not equitable.’’ Mr. Holcombe said. "The law should be enforced to the letter and every automobile owner should be made to comply with It. Ac cidents undoubtedly are deu to careless cidents undoubtedly are due to careless l enjoy driving my own car, 1 think too much of my.own life and those of others to drive at high speed.” Mr. Holcombe also declared that he thought the open mufflers are a nuisance. SUGGESTS FORFEITURE OF BOND IF GUILTY Harry Hillhouse of Ensley: "If ever;; owner of an automobile were put under bond to obey the law and if found guilty of violating the law' the bond forfeited there would be less speeding, in my opin ion. “It seems to be a general proposition that every one owning a high speed car will at some time or other ‘try it out’ and test its speed. In addition to the bond being forfeited, the license could be taken away and the owner refused another one for a period of say from two to five years. ‘‘The speeders have taken full posses sion of the highways and by-ways and one sees violations of the law every day which are very dangerous to the travel ing public. The above is merely a sug gestion, but it seems to me that it might be worked out into a feasibl^and practi cal plan." # WOULD PROHIBIT AUTOS IN COUNTRY AFTER DARK Chappell Cory: ‘‘The driving of auto mobiles outside the city limits after dark ought to be prohibited. It is impossible for any one to drive a horse along any of the roads leading into the city when darkness has set in, for the bright and glaring headlights are more than the average horse can stand. "Then again the automobilists show ab solutely no regard for the drivers of horse vehicles, neither as to observing the rules of the road or of the rate of speed allowed by law. I want to say further that It is not always the ‘Joy rider’ that is guilty of these practices, nor the negro chauf feurs, but In a large number of cases that have come to my notice it is the owners themselves." HIRE SPECIAL ATTORNEY TO WATCH THE CASES J. Kirk Moore: “My idea to stop the speeding nuisance is to Increase the fine.* and penalties imposed, and in the event of an appeal have these cases referred tc a special attorney, who will he prepared to fight the case when called in the higher court. "The trouble heretofore has been that an appeal would generally mean the wearing out of the case in court or a dismissal for want of prosecution. ‘T, feel sure that if these cases were taken in hand by a special attorney who would gather all the facts at the first trial and then present them at the hear ing before the higher courts there would be more convictions for this offense and a corresponding decrease in the number of speed violators. If the city is not finan cially able to hire an attorney for this purpose I believe there are numbers of lawyers who would volunteer their serv ices for this purpose." GIVE THEM JAIL AND HARD LABOR SENTENCES Judge H. B. Abernethy: "The way to stop speeding Is to impose a Jail or hard labor sentence. It has been proven that the imposition of a fine does not even diminish the evil. "I believe that for the first offense, a fine should be imposed, but for the second offense the violators should be imprisoned. "By the time you have put a few own ers of automobiles on the county roads for this offense there would