Snippets
Leinster Leader, Saturday 6 June 1903, Last
Edition - Page 5.
Naas Cycling Nuisance.
The privilege of cycling on footpaths in the vicinity of Naas
has been so grossly abused of late, that unless cyclists see
their way to act, with more consideration and reasonable regard
for the rights, not to say the safety, of other members of the
public, the authorities will have to be exhorted to step in
and enforce strict compliance with the law. Numerous complaints
have reached us of various acts of aggression recently committed
on pedestrians by cyclists. The latter tear round corners and
rush along the paths to the great annoyance of all ordinary
wayfarers and the utter consternation of the nervously inclined.
They swoop down upon ladies and children without sounding a
warning bell, or else they ring out their presence when they
are within inches of the pedestrian, with the result that the
startled individual is liable to jump in front of the "scorching"
wheel, in the confusion and fright of the moment. Indeed, it
is nothing but sheer guess or instinct that has enabled many
persons recently to escape death or maiming, for the fifteen-miles-an-hourer
rang his faugh-a-ballagh just when his front wheel was grazing
the coat-tails of his obstacle. Riders at night, too, do not
find road-riding without a lamp sufficiently risky for their
tastes; they seek adventure on
the footpaths of the Sallins and Dublin roads, and the writer
only escaped being crippled quite recently by the self-abnegation
of a nocturnal wheelman, who was obliging enough to ride out
on the road, when collision became imminent. We are advocates
for the greatest freedom and privilege for the cyclist, consistent
with public safety, but if the footpath is not used more reasonably
and lights shown at night, the authorities must be brought to
book for tolerating atrocious laxities.
………………………………………
MOTOR ACCIDENTS IN NAAS.
On Sunday morning last a dog belonging to Mr. Thos. O'Neill,
Main Street, Naas, was run over by a motor car and killed, and
on Monday an auto-cyclist collided with a donkey just outside
the town. The donkey escaped lightly, but the cyclist was severely
hurt.
