The Mayor of the District of Columbia is hereby authorized and empowered to make and to enforce all reasonable regulations in respect to requiring street cars operated by other means than horsepower in the District of Columbia to be provided with proper fenders for the protection of the lives and limbs of all persons within the District of Columbia. Such power and authority shall extend to the adoption by the said Mayor of any fender or fenders deemed by him to be superior to the fenders now in use as the fender or fenders which shall be used on cars operated within said District; provided, that nothing contained in this section shall operate to relieve any street-railway company from liability for accidents on its lines.

(Aug. 7, 1894, 28 Stat. 250, ch. 232.)

1981 Ed., § 44-204.

1973 Ed., § 44-204.

This section originated at a time when local government powers were delegated to a Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia (see Acts Relating to the Establishment of the District of Columbia and its Various Forms of Governmental Organization in Volume 1). Section 401 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967 (see Reorganization Plans in Volume 1) transferred all of the functions of the Board of Commissioners under this section to a single Commissioner. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, 87 Stat. 818, § 711 ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.11), abolished the District of Columbia Council and the Office of Commissioner of the District of Columbia. These branches of government were replaced by the Council of the District of Columbia and the Office of Mayor of the District of Columbia, respectively. Accordingly, and also pursuant to § 714(a) of such Act ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.14(a)), appropriate changes in terminology were made in this section.