The Shanghai Traffic Court held its inaugural sitting at the Mixed Court on Thursday. Magistrate Tsang and Mr. Hutchison were on the bench, and disposed of 15 cases, nearly all of. which were concerned. with reckless}\driving.
At two o'clock in the afternoon the court room was full of defendant chauffeurs, confronted with a deadly array of evidence in the shape of a whole detachment of Sikh traffic constables, police inspectors and complainants. Two C. P. O.'s were kept busy collect ing fines, some of which were deserved ly heavy. Only one man seemed to feel that justice had been properly meted out to him. Be was the driver of a motor lorry, on which the number plate was seen to be half obscured. The defendant stepped briskly into the box, bowed gravely to the Court and smi)- ing at the magistrate, begged to be excused for the offence. He was fined $2.
The heaviest penalty was inflicted upon a chauffeur who indulged in @ race with another car along the Bubbling Well Road. A witness stated that the two motors passed! him going at a speed of 35 miles an hour. The defendant made the excuse that one of his family was Il, and was fined $25. The Bubbling Well Road was also the scene of a more serious affair when a chauffeur ran his car into a red flag, swerve ed, and ran down a coolie engaged in' repairing the thoroughfare. The man said he was not driving quickly, but was. ordered to pay a $15 fine and another $15 compensation to the injured coolie.
The above cases are but everyday examples of what occurs on the tortuous, and often narrow, roads of the Settlement. During 1920 (according to the Municipal state istles) there was a marked drop in convictions for traffic offences, but during the past two months there has been a proportionate increase in such offences. Until yesterday traffic cases had necessarily been hurriedly dealt with, in order that magistrates and assessors could attend to numerous criminal and civil cases awaiting hearing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.