CHAPTER XX
SOME POINTS OF LAW AFFECTING THE OWNERS OF MOTOR VEHICLES
By Roger W. Wallace, K.C.
Chairman of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland
As every person interested in motor carriages knows, until the passing of the Locomotives on Highways Act of 1896, every mechanically driven carriage had to be preceded by a man on foot with a red flag, and proceed at a pace resembling that of an ox waggon. But now we may, if our vehicle be under a ton and a half, move at the pace of an average horse, that is to say at twelve miles an hour. Whether it be at all necessary in the open country to so limit the rate of progress is a matter on which opinions still differ, but owing to the efforts of the Automobile Club, public opinion is rapidly changing in favour of an alteration in the law.
This matter of speed, however, has from the first been a burning question between motor-owners and the general public as represented by the police and magistrates. In addition to the limit of twelve miles an hour the Local Government Board, under the authority conferred upon them by the Act of 1896, have made the following regulations:
The driver of a light locomotive —
1. Shall not drive at any speed greater than is reasonable and proper, having regard to the traffic on the highway, or so as to endanger the life or limb of any person or to the common danger of passengers.
2. If the weight unladen of the light locomotive be one ton
