To the Editor of the "Nortu-Cuina Darty News."
Sir,—The Mixed Court in the International Settlement maintains a Traffic Court presumably for the purpose of assisting in straightening out the tangles in the many traffic problems with which this great cosmopolitan city has' to contend, and which have become increasingly serious with the larger use of motor vehicles. Few cities in the world can display so many and such a variety of vehicles on its crowded streets as Shanghai, intermingled with tens of thousands of ambling pedestrians. Thus Shanghai traffic problems are serious. If the public is to be reasonably well protected, the Traffic Court of the Mixed Court must function effectively, or the efforts of the police are of little avail.
Recently, one evening, a coolie, an inexperienced driver who should not have been favoured with a licence, took one of his employer's beautiful new high-powered cars out without permission, and getting together a bunch of his coolie friends, set out for a joy ride over the crowded thoroughfares of Shanghai, with the result that a few hours later he crashed into another car, raming it broadside, badly demolishing the car and seriously injuring its occupants. Had it not been for two trees alongside of the road, the injured car would have been hurled into the ditch and probably one at least of its occupants fatally injured.
At the trial before the Traffic Court it was shown.
(1) That the coolie had taken the car from the garage without the authorization of its owner.
(2) That when he rammed the other car he was on the wrong I a a atte a i a a et lad side of the road going at a speed of over 30 miles an hour.
(3) At the critical moment he '4+ lost his head and put his foot on the accelerator instead of the brake.
(4) In turning a corner going into a main thoroughfare, he had not slackened his speed nor showed any evidence of using reasonable precaution.
(6) The other car was not in any sense at fault, being the victim of the carelessness of the joy-riding outfit.
(6) The occupants of the joy-riding car immediately Hed from the scene of the accident, and the chauffeur would have taken the car away had it not been stalled—thus none of the parties showed any concern for the occupants of the car which they crashed into.
(7) It was a happy combination of circumstances which prevented the damage being greater, although one of the occupants had several ribs badly fractured and the other received a number of ugly bruises.
In spite of the fact that the joy-riding coolie pleaded guilty, in spite of the fact that the owners of the car themselves joined in the prosecution, and in spite of the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.