Mount Pleasant Daily Times, Mount Pleasant, Texas
Monday, March 24, 1930
HIGHWAY COPS WERE BUSY HERE
CREATED A LOT OF EXCITEMENT SATURDAY NIGHT BY STOPPING CARS
Two of the newly-appointed highway traffic police spent several hours in Mt. Pleasant Saturday night, and certainly advertised their department.
Their mission was to see that all automobiles conformed to the highway regulations in reference to displaying their lights. A large number of cars with only one headlight were stopped and the drivers told to get the lights fixed at once. They were especially active in regard to cars which had no tail lights, and one garage reported that 35 people called for light bulbs in about two hours as a result of the police ordering drivers to display tail lights.
The police were very agreeable in the discharge of their duty, merely taking the name of the driver and the license number, with a warning that the lights be fixed at once. A penalty will be prescribed with the second offense, they said.
Action of the highway police in this matter is a safety measure that should have the approval of everybody, since if the highway regulations are enforced it will mean less danger on the road than heretofore.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Tuesday, October 6, 1931
HIGHWAY PATROL ENFORCING LAW LIMITING ROADS
Highway patrolmen were busy here Monday checking up on trucks with heavy loads. They arrested several drivers for various violations of the highway laws, some for not having license plates, some for having no mirrors or tail lights, and some for having loads too heavy and too wide.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Thursday, December 10, 1931
HIGHWAY PATROL ASSIGNED HERE
MT. PLEASANT WILL BE HEADQUARTERS FOR TWO MEN ON FORCE
Announcement was made Wednesday from the State Highway Department that sixty new members of the State Highway Patrol have been assigned to duty, and will be added to the original force of fifty.
The State has been divided into five districts, with headquarters at Austin, Abilene, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Centrally located towns in each district have been designated as headquarters for two or more patrolmen, and Mt. Pleasant was chosen as one of the headquarters. Other towns selected in this section are Texarkana, Paris, Greenville, Tyler and Marshall.
Two men were assigned to Mt. Pleasant, their names being given in the announcement as W. E. Renfrew and 0. K. Huddleston.
Better protection for the highways of the State will be assured by the increase of the force, as the territory to be covered by the patrolmen have been made smaller and they can check up on traffic better.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Wednesday, January 20, 1932
FIRST FATALITY STRIKES STATE HIGHWAY PATROL
Houston, Texas, Jan. 19. - Arthur Fischer was the first fatality today in the ranks of the State Highway Patrol since it was organized.
Fischer, 25 years old, was killed last night when his motorcycle fell to the pavement near here. Suffering a fractured skull, he died in an ambulance en route to a hospital. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Fischer of Holland and a brother of Ernest G. Fisher, city editor of the Marshall News.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas (007)
Tuesday, February 12, 1935
C. of C. to Fight Trucks Plans To Increase Loads
The State Highway Commission at Austin will he called upon Wednesday to vote on an issue proposing to increase the load limit on trucks running over the State highways from 7,000 to 14,000 pounds. The Chamber of Commerce Monday night, in its discussion of the subject, voted to fight the issue.
In a talk to that body by Claude Riney, Supervisor of highway work in this district, pointed out the damage that would be done by trucks carrying a load of fourteen thousand pounds. He said that the present highways in Titus County had been designed for the old load of seven thousand pounds, and that if the measure were to be enacted they would last only about three years at the most. He stated that bridges along our roads and certain parts of the roadbed would be severely damaged if overloading were permitted. His suggestion was that if the trucking concerns wished to carry 14,000 pounds, let them build their own roads to support the load.
Several citizens of Mt. Pleasant went to Austin Tuesday morning to enter protest to the State Highway Commission against the proposed issue.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Thursday, February 14, 1936
Licenses To Be Available For Drivers Friday
The licenses for operators motor vehicles, required to be issued by the Tax Collector under a new law passed by the State legislature, will be available for drivers, beginning Friday of this week. Car operators will have until April 1st to get these licenses, and if they do not have them after that date, they will be subject to fine.
Application blanks will be furnished free of charge, and there will be no cost for the licenses. The application must be filled in by the applicant, as the Tax Collector's office is already overran with work. A number of questions regarding the applicant's ability to drive an automobile must be answered, including ability to read highway markers.
The application blank must be attested by a notary, an authorized agent of the Department of Safety, or anyone authorized to administer oaths.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Friday Evening, March 6, 1936
Drivers' Licenses Being Applied for By Few Citizens
Titus County people evidently do not realize the importance of securing their drivers' licenses at present, as comparatively only a few have applied for their permits to drive cars.
There are approximately two thousand cars of various kinds in Titus County, with an average of three persons to drive each, which means that around six thousand licenses will have to be issued for Titus County people. Tax Collector Leftwich reports, however, that only about fifteen hundred licenses have been issued, which is only one-fourth of the estimated number allotted to this county.
After April first, no one will be allowed to drive an automobile unless he has a license to do so, and since there is no charge for their issuance, they should be applied for at once. There is only a short time remaining to get these necessary slips of paper, so do not wait until the last day of this month; but make application at once. A person driving a car without having a license on hand is liable to get into serious trouble after April first, and it will be better to be on the safe side.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Tuesday, March 31, 1936
Drivers May Lose License
Automobile drivers' licenses may be automatically suspended or revoked upon final conviction of any of six offenses.
A prison sentence of not less than two days nor more than six months in jail, and a fine of not more than $500 may be imposed on anyone driving an automobile while the license is suspended or revoked.
Final conviction of any of the following offenses automatically will suspend or revoke the 1icense of any person: Negligent homicide resulting from the operation of a motor vehicle; driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or narcotic drugs; any offense punishable as a felony under the motor vehicle laws of this State: upon three convictions of violating any of the previsions of Article 801 of the Penal Code of the Texas, or Section 10 of Chanter 42 of the general laws of the second called session of the Forty-First Legislature committed within a period of 12 consecutive months; a conviction of a driver of a motor vehicle involved in an accident or collision upon a charge of failure to stop, render aid, and disclose his identity at the scene of the collision; conviction upon two separate charges of aggravated assault upon the person by means of a motor vehicle, as provided by law.
Article 801 of the Penal Code and Section 10 of Chapter 43 are based on "the laws of the road."
"The laws of the road" include speeding, parking, failure to make proper driving signals and practically every traffic law."
"In aggravated cases," according to the license laws, "a person's driving privilege may be suspended for three minor infractions."
Suspension of a license is decided on by a committee of the State Highway Department in Austin, according to the statute. The clerk of every court and all justices of the peace will forward violations to the committee and they will determine final action.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
October 11, 1939
State Patrolmen Get After Autos In Bad Repair
State Patrolmen swooped down on traffic violators here Tuesday night, and cited seventeen to appear in City Court Wednesday morning, where they were assessed minimum fines by Mayor Patrick.
The violations were mostly for having bad headlights, but there were some who were charged with not having chauffeur's licenses and other offenses. There were four of the patrolmen here, and they stopped all cars that appeared in bad repair or which had bad lights of any kind.
It was lucky for the violators that they were sent to City Court, otherwise the fines would have been much higher. The State officers are trying to insure safe driving on the highways, and their efforts will probably cause more people to watch their headlights in the future than they have in the past.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Wednesday, August 11, 1954
Highway Patrolman Conducts Radar Demonstration Speed Control Here
Patrolman Glen York of the public relations department of the Texas Highway Patrol, stationed at the Tyler office, held a public demonstration here Tuesday of radar methods of determining the speed of automobiles on the state's highways. The demonstration was conducted at Lake Mt. Pleasant on Highway 271.
Several states have adopted radar methods of controlling speeding. York said, and attempts will be made at the next session of the Texas Legislature to include this state in the number. The purpose of the demonstration was to get the public's reaction to the plan.
Radar equipment originated during World War II and was used by all branches of the service for detecting and finding the range of enemy ships and planes. Radar, itself, means "radio detecting and ranging."
Applied to speeding automobiles, the radio equipment operates in this manner:
Patrolmen will work in pairs. One will be located with the radar equipment set along a major highway. The equipment consists of a special transmitter-receiver that sends out pulses of high frequency radio waves down the highway right-of-way. When these radio waves strike a moving automobile they are reflected back and the receiver picks them up.
The radio waves travel at the speed of light and the distance from the transmitter to the automobile is determined in millionths of a second by the time it takes the waves to reach the car and return to the receiver. The speed of the car is determined by the speed in which that distance, which is measured on a special meter, diminishes or lengthens, depending upon which direction the car is traveling.
Not only is the speed readable on the meter, but another piece of the radar equipment records the speed in ink on a sheet of graph paper, thus giving written evidence that may be used in trial of the speeding case.
When it is determined that a car is speeding, the operator of the radar calls his partner, who is stationed down the road, by radio and the latter is able to make the arrest without having to "pace" the speeder in a patrol car.
In states where radar equipment has been accepted highway speeding, regarded as the major traffic killer, has been brought under far better control than in the past. Even warning signs indicating "radar zones" have had their psychological effect in reducing speeds and thus saving lives. Those who saw the demonstration Tuesday were in full agreement that radar checks are workable, accurate and should be adopted in Texas.
