Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1913-01-24
MOTORISTS SCORED.
O'Meara Finds Big Increase in
Auto Victims in Four Years.

Police Commiss ioner, Stephen
O'Meara's annual report, issued yester-
day, is mainly devoted to automobile
traffic He finds that:
In four years automobile victims have
jumped from killed and 127 injured in
1908 to % killed and 483 injured in 1912.
On Beacon street for five or six hours
day it is difficult and dangerous for
pedestrian to cross.
Increase in average speed of motor
vehicles is principal cause of increase
in killed and injured.
Many drivers of automobiles whose
cars can attain fifty miles an hour
believe themselves moderate when run
ming at speeds from twenty to thirty
miles an hour.
If unlimited policemen were available,
every municipal and district court in
Boston would be kept busy daily with
automobile cases alone.
Mr.. O'Meara calls attention to the
fact that nearly every complaint during
1912 concerning the handling of cross
ings came from can occupant of
motor car who objected to being delayed
in order that foot travellers might cross
streets without running for their lives. "
The total number of arrests for all
classes of offenses during the year of
1912 was rs, 496 against 70, 442 in 1911 and
the proportion of non residedt offenders
arrested by the police showed another
increase, being for the year almost 38
per cent. of the total.
The total amount of fines imposed in
police cases during the year was $685.,
634, the number of persons fined was
IL, 703 and 1859 offenders was given
total of 1881 years of Imprisonment in
various institutions.
The third degree" subject which
the commissioner has never discussed
before since his appointment, is referred
to in the report as follows: The third
degree" is term in popular use which
is supposed to represent mental and
even physical torture to which prison
ers are subjected by police officials in
order to eXtort confessions. Whatever
it may be and wherever it may be prac-
ticed, 1t has no place in the Boston po-
lice department.
"The standing rule on the subject is as
follows: In the examination of pris-
oners by question or otherwise for the
purpose of obtaining confession or in
formation, no police officer shall in
fringe upon their legal rights nor shall
he subject them to any pressure or pro-
cedure of which he would be unwilling
to inform a court engaged in a hearing
of the case.
''In the absence of any information or
complaint to the contrary ever received
by me believe that the rule is obeyed
and that therefore those who denounce
the practice, some of whom are our own
good citizens, should make it clear that
their denunciations do not apply to Bos-
ton and its police.
In summing up 2l7O automobile viola
tion prosecutions, they are classified as
follows:
Overspeeding 375
Failure to slow down and give sig
nal at intersecting street 795
Making improper turns at corners lO7
Operating recklessly 81
Operating while intoxicated 2S
Operating on wrong side of street
or not as near as possible to
right curb l27
Failure to stop for street cars or
other vehicles or pedestrians Is
Lamps lacking, not lighted or not
in proper condition $50
| Operating while unlicensed a
Operating without license on per-
son "a
| Operating an unregistered car II
Operating a registered car without
certificate of registration on
person Al
Operating a registered car without
numbers, or with wrong num-
bers, or with numbers improp-
erly displayed or not in proper
condition =
Cutting out muller IL
Making an unreasonable noise with
signalling apparatus Ia
Allowing an unreasonable amount
of smoke to escape q
| Miscellaneous al
In his comments upon the situation in
Boston the commissioner states, inpart
1.-The leap in four years, from six
killed and l27 injured in Boston in 1905
to twenty-five killed and 4S3 injured in
1912, cannot nearly be accounted for by
the increased use of motor vehicles,
large though that increase has been.
81 believe that the principal cause of
the growth of the list of killed and in
jured is the increase in the average
speed of motor vehicles. To the same
cause NAV he charged an enormous