The First Speeding Ticket in Kennewick
A local delivery driver learns the hard way that the city's new traffic ordinance has teeth.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Exceeding the city speed limit cost H. W. Sharp $1.00 and extras in Justice Staser’s court Tuesday. This is the first case to come under Ordinance No. 81, regulating the speed of automobiles within the city limits. Marshal C. E. Copeland made the arrest Monday evening when Sharp, who drives the delivery car for Dircksen’s Meat Market, was making a record run down Second Street. Tuesday afternoon in police court, Sharp pleaded guilty, but said he was not intentionally guilty as he had some trouble with his machine and could not reduce the speed as quickly as he wished. As this was the first offense and in view of the extenuating circumstances, Judge Staser made the fine as light as possible. It is the intention of the city officers to enforce Ordinance No. 81 before some serious accident brings regret over what should have been done.
“It is the intention of the city officers to enforce Ordinance No. 81 before some serious accident brings regret over what should have been done.”
Long before modern automated speed enforcement, Kennewick's police began their crack-down on motorists in 1914. While the stakes were a one-dollar fine then, the civic tension between 'making a record run' and city safety remains a familiar refrain in local council meetings.
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