Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-10

chamber of commerce, Merchants and
Manufacturers association and the
Municipal league to inquire into the
cause Of the many street car accidents
daily occurring in this city and sug-
gest remedies, made its report to the
appointing bodies yesterday afternoon.
This report is most exhaustive and
was not completed until the committee
had held fifteen meetings. At nine
of these meetings every member of
the committee was present, but one
was slightly injured in a street car
accident and could not attend six of
the meetings. The committee was
composed of the following we'll known
citizens: J. G. Mckinney, l. H. Polk,
Fielding ]. Stilson, G. M. Staub, Rob
ert McGarvln, Burt Estes Howard and
Eugene Germain. c.. d. Willard acted
as secretary.
The committee gathered it's informa-
tion on the number and character of
accidents from three sources, the
newspapers, the companies records
and the coroner's reports. The find
ings of the committee cover twenty
one pages of foolscap in typewriting.
In, part it is as follows:
Asks for Ordinance
Recommends ton 1. That council
pass an ordinance requiring all street
car lines and steam railways operat-
ing in this city to file with the city
clerk record of every accident within
forty-eigth hours after such accident
occurs Accident. should be defined as
meaning anything that involves death,
or an injury sufficient to require the
services of a physician, or that in
wolves the forcible striking of a car
itact tnfI nn 0oI a o.
hice This would give us an official
record to go by hereafter.
The result of our Investigations has
convinced us that the number of acci-
dents, fatal and otherwise, occurring
in this city and vicinity is entirely
out of proportion to the population,
the mileage of the roads, the number
of passengers carried or any other
factor that can be used as a basis of
comparison, after allowing due con-
sideration for all peculiar conditions
of climate and other local features
that may affect the issue. Further
more, we believe that the causes of
these accidents, so excessively numer-
GUS, lie in a large measure, within
the control of the companies and the
public authorities. although we rec
ognize that there is grave need for the
cultivation of a proper public senti-
ment on certain points that enter into
the problem.
Want New Department
Recommendation 2. Believing that
the trolley systems of this country are
vital to it's development, and recogniz-
ing the complicated and difficult char
acter of the problems that must be
worked out, not only as to the safety
of human life, but also as to the re-
lations of the utility corporations and
the city, we would recommend that
council establish by ordinance a de-
partment of transportation under the
board of public works, and that a fund
of not less than $4,000 per year be
obtained by increasing the city's
charges against the street railroads,
and that the services of some exper-
fenced street car. manager be secured
at a fair salary, whose duty it should
be to inspect all street car lines and
their methods of operation, in the in
terest of the people; to check up and
give an opinion upon all franchises
proposed to be granted, and to study,
in every way, the safeguarding of the
city's interest. We believe that such
an officer if honest and efficient,
could be of great service to the NUM-
cipality. He should not be an cleo
tlNO OlllCSly Oul SIOuiu De dpPOlIlltu
as the city engineer now is.
We believe the need for such a. city
officer as we have described will be
recognized, and he will be appointed;
but this commission desires to go on
record recommending that this plan be
adopted forthwith
Causes Of Accidents
OF the seventy-five fatal accidents
occurring IN this vicinity during the
twelve months from September 1, 1905
to September 1. 1906, forty-eight took
place in the city and twenty-seven in
the county outside the city. The di-
vision among the various roads is as
follows
Los Angeles railway ....................A
Los Angeles-Pacific,.. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
lnterMDan .........,...............
Pacific Electric ............................ .29
Redondo ........................... 2
Joint, ETC., accidents. s....................... G
There were, all together entered upon
our schedule 443 accidents all of which
were sufficiently serious to call for
newspaper comment.
The exact nature of the 443 accidents
is shown by the following schedule:
Passengers alightng ................. 50
passengers Doarulng .............-........ 81
~ i~ho slVl
Striking vehicles ....,.................... 1O5
Striking automobiles .....................1 II
Striking bicycles ..,....................... 90
Miscellaneous and unknown. ............ 4S
Collisions at steam crossings. ............
Collisions at electric car crossings. .,...,
Rear end collisions ........................ 0
Head-on collisions ........................
Miscellaneous collisions ..........,....... IS
Total ....,..,............................Il8 .Il8
The nature of the fatal accidents is
as follows:
Passengers alighting ..................2
Passengers boarding ....,......,.....,..4
Striking pedestrians ......................3S .3S
Striking vehicles ...,.....................
Striking automobiles .....................
Striking bicycles Observation-Disclosures.
Miscellaneous and unknown .............1
Collisions at steam crossings. ............ 3
Collision at electric car crossings....,., 3
Miscellaneous collisions ......".....,..... 2