7 SEPTEMBER 1934, Page 7

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

T HOPE the motoring associations and everyone else IL who cares for human life will fight to the last ditch against the suggestion that motor-horns be banned altogether, by day as well as night. I say that not because / love the noise of hooters or like sounding one, but because I dislike accidents. A horn at night and a horn by day are two totally different things. The horn's functions can be discharged more or less effectively by headlights at night. By day there is no substitute but the human voice—not much. good in a closed car. It is all very well to suggest that without the horn drivers will exercise more caution. Some may, some will not ; for the latter there will be a heavy bill to pay. We can do with a good deal less hooting, and with horns of standard note, but there are cases where a warning is essential— in overtaking, for pedestrians who step suddenly off the pavement, or cross the road without looking both ways, or emerge from behind a stationary vehicle—to say nothing of cross-roads. And a horn that can be a curse in the night-silence is a trivial nuisance among the street- noises of the day.