One Way to Prevent Traffic Interference

One Way to Prevent Traffic Interference

佛罗里达州西棕榈滩的官员。,有优惠ived a new method of driving home the lesson to automobilists that interference with fire apparatus when answering alarms will not be tolerated. The fire department, in company with most others throughout the country, has experienced a great deal of trouble from motorists rushing to fires and interfering with the fire apparatus. In fact on the day in which this method of stopping the interference was adopted an accident of this kind had occurred in front of the Buena Vista Hotel.

An alarm had been received for a fire in a store kept by a negro at Sixth Avenue and Division Street, West Palm Beach. The chief of police accompanied by three policemen reached the scene of the fire at the same time as the apparatus. The fire truck, under the direction of the fire chief, was drawn across Sixth Avenue at Division Street, cutting off escape of the automobile drivers who had crowded to the fire. Two blocks south the police car drew up and prevented the autos from escape from the rear. The firemen and police then passed through the street and took the names and license numbers of more than fifty drivers and summoned them to appear in court the following morning, which was a Monday. Many of the motorists protested against their arrest, holding that they had observed the five-minute stop rule, which obtains in the town, but to no avail. The next morning they were charged with blockading traffic and were fined $5.00 each by the local municipal judge. It is expected that the action of the officials will have a salutary effect in preventing further trouble of this kind.