The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-06
AUTOMOBILES AND

Automobiles and motor trucks are not nearly so dangerous as is gener- ally believed; Tn fact. they are little # any, AI1leE iilxas shorses the subject are gradually proviu g. Re cent reports on street and highway accidents and fatalities are rndsIead- ing in this respect. in that they fail to take into account several factors that are of the utmost imp in arriving at accurate estimates of the comparatfve danger of different kinds of vehicular traffic.
 Tn the first place. while giving bars
 figures. showing the comparative numbers of persons killed and injured
 by motor vehicles, trolley cars and
 horse drawn vehicles year by year. re- ports Sdo. not show the relative in-
 creases or decreases in the numbers of such vehicles in use. On their face,
 the figures show that the increase in
 accidents is due almost entirely to
 motor vehicles. but the simplest anal ysis shows that this is due to the fact
 that the number of vehicles is increas- ing very rapidly. while the number of horse-drawn vehicles and trolley ears have remained almost stationary for several years past
 Accepting at their face value ssthe reports of accidents as compiled an alysis proves that the ratio of fatali- | ties to the number of motor vehicles is not increasing. Thus, a report re- Ecentiy sent out and D lblished in New York and other newspapers give the total fatalities in New ork state due to automobiles for the last three years
 as follows: 1e11sss274; 1912, 5s4s; 1913g 45L Dividing the number of fatalities l into thes number of cars in use, sit is Hound that in s1911 there were s335 deaths, or slightly more than 31-3 for every GOO motor vehicles regis tered, not including the cars of non
 residents driven into the state from other states, of which there are many thousands during the year. Tn 1912 the ratio was only per 1000 and in 1913, 1t was 3.4 or practically the same as in II
 more accident the increase in mum Der is due entirely to the greater mum : I Der of motor vehicles used and is i1l no wise the result of greater reckless I ness or indifference to the laws on the part5of the automobileAo owners and drivers of automobiles and motor I trucks. I Another side of the matter that is l overlooked altogether is the relation that the nuH1ber<of accidents beans to
 the miles traveIed in day sor a sI year by motor vehicles and by horses. Is the mileage itsscovers in a given time. By way of illustration, de I livery horse will not average more than twenty miles day the year taround, whereas motor wagon does two and one-half times as many. 1 With the passenger car the difference is even greater. When touring, the ] autonnobile ommonly averages about I100 miles day.. This is four or zi five times the distance a. horse and tl buggy or span Of carriage horses stwou1d cover The chances of acct
 dent over 100 miles of road are nat
 slraIIy four times as great as on twen- ty-five miles.
 1 Although there certainly are many more horse drawn vehicles in use il
 AIassa chuse.ts than there are motor vehicles, most elaborate census ol
 traffic on all the principal state high
 ways, taken under the direction ol
 the state highway commission. Iasi sI year, shows-that two-thirds of all stlch traffic was T1otor-driven- This bears | cut officially the observations made
 herein, and indicates clearly that ii ] the number of
 tomohiles were doubIe thosfs caused , by horses, the proposition would bs no greater in relation to the amount : of traffic or travel.